Graduation (Parental Advisory) [Digipak] [ECD] - Kanye West > Reviews > Kanye Vs. Curtis

Author's product rating:   

Originality	Definitely a cut above the rest
Lyrics	Sublime
Quality and consistency of tracks	Flawless
Value for Money	Excellent

Advantages:	different to others yet amazing quality
Disadvantages:	not as long as previous albums

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

I am a Kanye fan. I like 50 cent's music most of the time, but ask me to pick between the two and there would be no hesitation at all. I can also think of a number of people off the top of my head who would happily say good riddance to bad rubbish to 50's comment that should he lose the battle, he will never release another album. But to me thats a bit excessive, and with the battle now lost, I wonder if he will be sticking to it?! (kanye no.1, 50 cent no.2 in todays chart)

The official release date was 11.09.07, yet naturally it came out on the 10th due to it being a monday and the start of our 'music week'. To buy, Kanye's album will cost about £8.99 (HMV online with free delivery) or should you choose to download, it's £7.90 for the complete album and 79p per song from i-tunes. Buying of i-tunes has it's perks, as it's there that you can get the exclusive song 'Bittersweet', which is probably one of the best tracks in my opinion! In buying in the UK we also gain a bonus track - Goodnight - which is also a good extra and another favourite of mine - and just to check, i went on amazon.com and the Americans definatly don't get this track!

Track List: 1.Good Morning 2.Champion 3.Stronger 4.I Wonder 5.Good Life - feat. T-Pain 6.Can't Tell Me Nothing 7.Barry Bonds - feat. Lil Wayne 8.Drunk & Hot Girls - feat. Mos Def 9.Flashing Lights - feat. Dwele 10.Everything I Am - feat. scratches by DJ Premier 11.The Glory 12.Homecoming - feat. Chris Martin 13.Big Brother 14.UK bonus track - Goodnight

As with his two previous albums (The College Dropout and Late Registration) Kanye has continued the school theme by calling this third album 'Graduation'. He has also kept the bear image, which has made it through all three albums. Compared with the other two...it's definatly different. The College Dropout was an instant hit in my mind, and all tracks were deemed favourites immediatly. Late Registration was then slightly different in style to the first yet I quickly got used it, and i think the same is happening with Graduation. I wasn't immediatly drawn to it due to its difference to the previous albums, but having played it a few times, i can safely say i'm very happy with it! With a wide variety of featured artists, the tracks are all varied, although some feel as though they don't quite fit with the Kanye West mentality and the other songs eg Drunk & Hot Girls - though it's still a very good track. With Stronger being the first released single, we could immediatly guess at not just the quality but the future sucess of this album, as so far it has spent 6 weeks in the top 3 of the top 40 singles chart. I would recommend this album to anyone, a previous Kanye fan or not.

Kanye's website (www.kanyewest.com) says that "the largest sales week this year belongs to Linkin Parks 'minutes to midnight' with 623,000" albums being sold. It is predicted that Graduation will surpass 750,000 albums, with 437,000 albums being sold on release day. In the Rolling Stones magazine that had a feature on the kanye/50 battle, fiddy was quoted as saying "He's never been able to generate a fraction fo the interest that I have". Now who will be eating their words?!