Since premiering "Love Lockdown" at the MTV VMAs, Kanye West's "new direction" has been viewed with suspicion. The apparent wholesale shift to autotuned warbler has, for perhaps the first time, led folk to see West as more follower than innovator. With the additional revelation that 808s & Heartbreak would contain no rapping (from Kanye, at least), the still highly-anticipated album was placed firmly in the corner marked "difficult".

Having listened to it, I think 808s could actually come to be seen as Kanye West's artistic high point. Sure, it doesn't contain the high-pitched chipmunk vocals and soul samples that people have come to associate with him, but after a couple of run-throughs you can't help but admire such a bold change.

There aren't many pop superstars - and that's what he became - who would be willing to jack in many of the elements that brought them success. I won't be surprised if his next album sees him back on hip-pop form, but 808s is a stark, emotionally raw view from someone who got to the top of the game and found it an empty victory.

Now, he's not the first zillionaire to start whining about such matters. But the pummeling, minimalist rhythms he employs - quite often they remind me of Joy Division - alongside synth hooks and, yes, heavily autotuned vocals all present something quite unlike anything you're likely to have heard from a mainstream pop star before. I won't go as far as calling it his Kid A, but it's a similarly brave departure.

And when it comes to the lyrics, you believe him. You believe his heartbreak in a way you don't believe any number of other superstars who fabricate emotion with the awareness that they have millions of fans who will lap it up.

"My friend showed me pictures of his kids / All I could show him was pictures of my cribs," he laments on "Welcome To Heartbreak". Looks unbearably whiny on paper, and a couplet like this would be used to tongue-in-cheek effect if it were a rap number. But in the context of 808s & Heartbreaks it cuts to the heart of the emptiness he feels as a human being despite such stratospheric success.

It'll probably take people a while to come round to the sound West is pushing on 808s - indeed it might take diluted copycat versions of the album's tracks for it to gain the artistic recognition it deserves. By then he might well have moved on, or gone back to tweak his chart-conquering pop-hop formula.

Whatever happens next, I think 808s & Heartbreak will stand as a challenge for pop stars who refer to themselves as artists - and that challenge is: "Prove it."

"Amazing", featuring Young Jeezy:

[video: GemsOfGemz]