Graduation

I’d like to take a break from what I pretend is a tradition and review a hip-hop album today.
Kanye West’s Graduation, his third album, was released last September. The 30 year-old rapper, producer, and six time Grammy Award winner opened his first two days with 437,000 copies sold.
Unlike previous Kanye albums, Graduation has only 13 tracks. Late Registration (2005) and The College Dropout had a combined 41 tracks. Graduation also differs from previous albums in that he has begun to use synthesizers to great effect.
The album is hard to like on the first listen. I found myself unhappy with some of the beats and the lyrics landed less than softly on my ears. But after another go, I found that the album was really well broken down. A second glance (or rather listen) allows the consumer to look past the dominant sounds that they heard the first time and focus more what really makes the songs worth listening to.
Graduation features a number of guest performers including Coldplay’s Chris Martin, rappers Lil’ Wayne and Mos Def, and R&B singer T-pain. They come together to create a good depth of vocal sounds that make the songs diverse, something hard to find on modern rap/hip-hop albums.
Easily the albums strongest song is “Stronger”. The song’s excellent use of synthesizers makes it a unique find in traditional hip-hop.
I apologize that there will be no accompanying tab for this song. I’m not nearly good enough with music to create a tab based on the synthesized.
Overall the album is worth a good listen. And I really mean a good listen. It’s easy to miss a lot of what this album brings if you have it playing while trying to focus on a million other things. Sit. And listen. You’ll find that this album has much more to offer than traditional hip-hop. That isn’t to say that I think it is the only hip-hop album out there with universal appeal. It’s just one of the most recent that I have come by.
I chose to review this album because I thought it had a unique sound to it. These day’s its hard to find popular music with a unique sound; it seems like the same beats pound out of every car radio with slightly altered lyrics about bitches, booze, and nice cars. Graduation, to me, is different. It takes a different approach to modern music and Kanye does a wonderful job of putting his own mark on his music and indeed the entire music culture of modern day America.