CDs

Kanye West, 808s & Heartbreak (Roc-A-Fella).

Kanye West has a bad case of the jet-set blues: every song on his fourth album drips with lachrymose regret and stupefying levels of self-pity.

Nothing new there, really – West has long been one of the most solipsistic individuals in an already self-obsessed genre. In all other regards, though, 808s & Heartbreak is a radical departure.

The 11 songs are sung rather than rapped, and West’s ...