After one spin of Kanye West’s new 808s & Heartbreak, I think the best way to describe my feelings on it is to say that I don’t love it but don’t hate it. It’s a mellow, enjoyable listen.

It’s definitely a darker, moodier Kanye than we’ve seen in his past three attempts, but I think that would be evident without even listening and just reading some of the song titles: “Welcome to Heartbreak,” “Heartless,” “Paranoid,” “Bad News,” “See You in My Nightmares” and “Coldest Winter.”

The production throughout the entire album is great and makes me wanna move like some nice downtempo trip-hop, but the autotune vocals grind on me after a while. I don’t really get into Young Jeezy a whole lot, but his verse (one of two non-autotune vocal parts on the album) on “Amazing” is refreshing after the first few tracks of all autotune.

I’d say look for “Paranoid” to be the third single, as it’s probably the most uptempo track on 808s. Though there aren’t any obvious standouts as the previous albums, strong tracks include the singles “Heartless” and “Love Lockdown” along with “Amazing,” “Paranoid,” “Street Lights” and the bonus live freestyle, “Pinocchio Story.”

Those expecting another College Dropout- or Graduation-type outing might not like it, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. I’d recommend everyone to check it out just to see what he’s up to and how he’s pushing his art forward.