Graduation

It should come as no surprise that I bought Kanye West's new album, Graduation, today. What may come as a surprise, especially to me, it didn't become one of my instant favorites. That is what happened with his first two albums, The College Dropout and Late Registration. If I really like, or love, an album I'll want to listen to it again immediately after listening to it for the first time. That didn't happen with Graduation. As of right now, it seems like one of those things I'll have to be in the mood to listen to. I think the problem is that it wasn't at all what I was expecting. This album seems like a collection of songs, whereas the first two albums seemed very cohesive. It was as if the two albums were telling a whole story. I was expecting that from Graduation, also. The content of The College Dropout and Late Registration seemed a lot more personal than Graduation. Kanye seems to be bragging a lot more than usual. I was expecting a continuation or a build on what was on Late Registration. The music on Graduation is a lot more electronic-y than Kanye's ever made before. This was the same problem I had when I first heard X&Y by Coldplay, but that eventually grew to be one of my favorites.

Anyway, my favorite song on the album is Stronger. Being that this is the first single, it seems kind of cliche to pick it, but that's the way it is. Being that T-Pain and Lil Wayne seem to be absolutely everywhere in music today, it's only fitting that they'd be on this album. T-Pain is on The Good Life, which I like, and Lil Wayne is on Barry Bonds, which is okay.