Kanye West - Late Registration

Kanye West - Late Registration

1. Wake Up Mr. West
2. Heard 'Em Say Feat. Adam Levine
3. Touch The Sky Feat. Lupe Fiasco
4. Gold Digger Feat. Jamie Foxx
5. Skit #1
6. Drive Slow Feat. Paul Wall, GLC
7. My Way Home Feat. Common
8. Crack Music Feat. Game
9. Roses
10. Bring Me Down Feat. Brandy
11. Addiction
12. Skit #2
13. Diamonds From Sierra Leone (Remix) Feat. Jay Z
14. We Major Feat. Nas, Really Doe
15. Skit #3
16. Hey Mama
17. Celebration
18. Skit #4
19. Gone Feat. Consequence, Cam'Ron
20. Diamonds From Sierra Leone (bonus track)
21. Late

This is the second release from Kanye West, his first being “The College Dropout”, which I got for Christmas last year and I still listen to everyday.

I’m gonna be completely honest here. I don’t think this as good as The College Dropout. Saying that though, I’ve only been listening to Late Registration for a few days.

This offering has both the humour (see Gold Digger) and the seriousness (Roses deals with the frustration of having a relative terminally ill in hospital) of his last album. Late Registration sees Kanye become a lot more serious than humorous though. The single, Diamonds from Sierra Leone, is not just homage to his label but also points out links to the drug trade in America and the diamond trade in Sierra Leone, whereas the positive Hey Mama is basically a thank you letter to his Mother set over music.

Production-wise, this is just as tight as The College Dropout but there are a few tracks that just don’t seem up to standard. The song with Brandy (Bring Me Down) doesn’t seem to suit Kanye’s voice, and the sample behind the song Celebration sounds like a midi sample from the end of an old Nintendo game or something.

Overall, I think this album is not what I expected, but after giving it a few spins, most of the songs are just as catchy as the majority of The College Dropout. If I was to give it a rating I would give it 7 out of 10.

Stand out tracks are: Touch the Sky, Gold Digger, Roses, Diamonds From Sierra Leone and Gone.

Tracks to skip are: Bring Me Down and Celebration. The loop on We Major gets a bit annoying and I personally don’t think it should have been a 7 minute song.

Late Registration is released on 28/08/05 and if you pre-order it from Virgin you can get it for £8.99!