Graduation
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Average customer review:Track Listing
- Good Morning
- Champion
- Stronger
- I Wonder
- Good Life feat. T-Pain
- Can't Tell Me Nothing
- Barry Bonds feat. Lil Wayne
- Drunk & Hot Girls feat. Mos Def
- Flashing Lights feat. Dwele
- Everything I Am feat. scratches by DJ Premier
- The Glory
- Homecoming
- Big Brother
- Goodnight (UK/Oz/NZ bonus track)
Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #8291 in Music
- Released on: 2007-09-10
- Number of discs: 1
- Formats: Enhanced, Explicit Lyrics
- Running time: 54 minutes
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.co.uk Review
What do you do after you’ve reinvented a genre? Well, going on Graduation, the third full-length artist album by hip-hop’s most famous Noughties auteur Kanye West, you hunt across the pop landscape for fresh sounds ripe for plunder. Most obviously, there’s Daft Punk, whose track "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" forms the vocoder foundation to "Stronger". But Kanye’s learnt more from the robots than this straight steal would suggest--indeed, a good proportion of Graduation sounds informed by their vintage synthesisers and noveau ‘80s feel. Elsewhere, there’s much to suggest Kanye’s pop ambitions have no sign of waning: the opulent "Good Life" rolls along on a hook snatched from Michael Jackson’s "PYT (Pretty Young Thing)", while "Homecoming" follows Jay-Z’s lead and borrows the vocal talents of Coldplay’s Chris Martin. The album’s not without the occasional goof--"Drunk and Hot Girls", a boozy tale set to the tempo of an Eastern European drinking song, is something Outkast could more comfortably handle. But thankfully, there’s also numerous moments where Kanye simply does what Kanye does best. "Can’t Tell Me Nothing" is a sleek, swaggering statement of self-assurance, while "Everything I Am" kicks off on a battle tack but gradually softens, the sound of a man balancing power and responsibility: "Last year Chicago had 600 caskets," muses Kanye, "Man, killing’s some wack shit". --Louis Pattison
CD Description
Kayne West follows 2004's 'The College Dropout' and 2005's 'Late Registration' with the aptly titled 'Graduation', his third full-length studio album. West's showmanship and lyrical style has been compared with the likes of P.Diddy and Jay-Z, while he has a host of production credits to his name. Trademark orchestral strings, eclectic samples and huge beatsaccompany cleverly written lyrics of good times and bad, which are delivered with a sense of urgency, yet with the easeof an artist at the top of his game. Singles include 'Stronger', which includes a loop borrowed from Daft Punk, and 'Can't Tell Me Nothing'.
Customer Reviews
West at his Best.
A fair bit better than Late registration but not quite up to the standard of College Dropout, Kanye delivers one of the best hip-hop albums to be released in the last 10 years.
Kanye cuts the crap with this album, with no annoying skits every three or four songs this album is a mere 13 tracks long, compared to the 20 odd tracks of the previous albums. Kicking off with the basic Good morning, West sets the tone for the album. Minimilist beats and limited guest appearances, highlighting Kanye's lyrical talent.
The jay-z sample on good morning fits perfectly. The album rolls along nicely (with Champion being a real spirit lifter), coming to stronger, the daft punk sampled hit that i'm sure you have all heard. The next song, i wonder, is classic Kanye west, with him spitting over a soul sample.
Good life sees the first guest appearance on the album, with t-pain singing on the chorus. Akon must have been busy. It's the third single off the album and deservedly so. Next comes Can't Tell Me Nothing, i'm sure you'll have heard that. One of the best tracks on the album in my opinion.
Lil wayne features on Barry Bonds, the purest hip-hop track on the album, but his voice is annoying to me. Drunk and hot girls features mos def and is the most musically experimental track on the album. Mos def sings rather than raps, wich is refreshingly fantastic.
Flashing lights is much like i wonder and dj premier's addiction to everything i am is excellent. The glory is one of the stand out tracks on the album, again showing off Kanye's effective use of sampling, much the same as the college dropout album. Homecoming, as i'm sure you'll know features Chris Martin from Coldplay, a song that has been remastered from when it appeared back in 2004.
Big Brother is, in my opinion, the best song on the album. With lyrics both praising his mentor jay-z and explaining how close the two are, but also how West felt Jay was keeping him at a distance in the early stages of his career. A deep moment for Kanye.
Overall, Graduation is an outstanding album that closely resembles the Dropout. An excelltn product from West, and well worth the wait.
Will grow on you...
I got this album yesterday, and so far it doesn't match with his previous albums, but i remember that Late registration is one that grew on me over time. Because this album is so different from any other hip hop album, you have to listen to this a good few times before you really start to enjoy it.
Stand out tracks for me is Big Brother, Stronger, Good Life, but my favourite so far is the track with Coldplay's Chris Martin, Homecoming. I can see this being a hit if he decides to release it. Give this album a chance, i'm sure it'll become a great hip hop album, but you have to give some albums time to sink in, because they are stretching hip hop further than the way we're used to.
The best West album yet
Very rarely do I listen to an album the whole way through and like each and every track on it. This is one of those rare occasions. I'm a big Kanye West fan and do enjoy most of his production work and this has some of the best I've heard from his short career so far. Taking the songs to bit more of a serious route but still has all of the fun lyrics like previous albums.
Stand-out tracks for me would have to be "Good Morning", "Flashing Lights" and "Everything I Am". The single, "Stronger", although ok, is probably the weakest (no pun intended) track on the whole album, so if you're debating a purchase of this album, don't base it on this track and just trust me that it is awesome.





