Next step, Heartbreak

Moving on from his education trilogy – College Dropout, Late Registration and Graduation – comes Kanye West's fourth album.

808s & Heartbreaks opened to first week sales of 450,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan, as compared to his Graduation's opening-week numbers of 957,000 copies.

Despite being one of the most respected artists in the world, with more wealth than Croesus, he's not happy. Considering he split from a long-term partner and his mother passed away earlier in the year, it's no surprise. The fact he faces up to both so honestly, however, is.

"My friend showed me pictures of his kids, all I could show him was pictures of my cribs," he sings on opener Say You Will. Loneliness is a constant theme on 808s & Heartbreaks, but rather than merely moaning about it, Kanye points his considerable intellect at analysing his predicament.

Musically, electro is the order of the day, with vocoders morphing his voice on almost every track.

The result is a stunning, slightly alarming album, and West's best to date.

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