Graduation Cary NC

Graduation

Kanye West

Roc-A-Fella, 2007

REVIEW BY: Ben Ehrenreich

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 10/15/2007

Graduation is Kanye West’s worst album…and yet it might be the best one at putting a smile on your face, as it's still pretty damn good.

It is almost impossible to sit through a listening of Graduation without smirking at a clever metaphor, nodding your head to a booming beats or just full-out dancing to the joyous explosion that is erupting from your speakers.

Graduation is much like a graduation ceremony -- an upbeat celebration with the occasional trip down memory lane. Kanye got rid of his patented skits and most of the guest appearances and left a disc that’ll seem to be over shortly after you press play.

Kanye completely revamped his production style (once again) to create probably his best-produced album to date. The down side to this musical manifesto is that he occasionally slacks off in the lyrics department, more so than he did on his past two albums. For instance, “Good Life” is a very addictive, joyful anthem that contains a great beat and some very insightful lines. The problem lies when halfway through each verse he starts shouting out random cities, much like a babbling MTV VJ would do. This song is still very enjoyable, but could have been improved tenfold without the geography lesson.