CD reviews: Kanye West, Kevin Costner and Modern West

Kanye West, "808s and Heartbreak"

(Roc-A-Fella/Def Jam)

Self-awareness mixed with gut-spilling honesty anchors the hip-hop superstar's compelling yet bittersweet fourth album. It's a major sonic departure for West. Where previous releases transformed samples from Ray Charles to Daft Punk into danceable rap hits, this 12-track effort largely recalls the sparse, echoey sounds of 1980s pop acts Tears for Fears or early Phil Collins.

West is coming off a rough year. His mother died in November 2007; five months later, he ended an engagement. Instead of ignoring his pain, he has chosen to sing about it -- assisted by Auto-Tune, the pitch correction software, which West uses to give his voice a detached, anguished quality. It sounds as if he's searching for answers from some internal void; the results are mostly touching. On "Welcome to Heartbreak," he sings full of regret. On "Say You Will," he ponders a lover's loyalty over a chilling, ping-pongy sound effect. Stove-pipe organ stabs drive the cynical break-up ditty "Heartless," while the moody keys, thumping drums and West's plaintive wail give "Coldest Winter" -- an ode to his late mother -- distinct emotional heft.

Still, the disc's minimalism can be tedious at times. Three-quarters through, West's melancholy becomes harder to digest -- from the string-heavy "RoboCop" through the extended chick-a-boom outro of "Bad News." Ultimately, "808s and Heartbreak" is further proof that West is most compelling when he's open to figuring it all out.

BRETT JOHNSON, ASSOCIATED PRESS

Kevin Costner and

The 53-year-old actor fashions himself as some kind of new John Mellencamp (who is 57), and his band Modern West blithely opts to live and die with Costner at the helm, even though he's the least musically talented in the bunch. As a result, the group shoots for a vintage Eagles sound but ends up more like solo Glenn Frey.

Costner is enveloped in a serviceable country/rock context and launches into an unconvincing campaign to identify with the common folk. He isn't without his relatable moments, as when he projects an empathetic air on "Don't Lock 'em Away." Then there's the irrepressible old-school country cut "Hey Man What About You?" (a fired-up electric romp with a fiddle flurry).

However, those tracks are the exceptions, and "Untold Truths" is so unbelievably cornball it becomes laugh-out-loud funny. If he had simply been Kevin Costner singing about love and life, it would have worked better than this blatantly fake Everyman he and his band invented.