Kanye graduates to sophomore album

According to Kanye West: "It's a celebration, bitches." The Louis Vuitton Don and his disturbing mascot, the Bear, are back in Late Registration, arguably the most anticipated album of 2005, and the cocky Chi-town artist/producer Kanye West will not let us forget it. \nWith a debut album that yielded several Grammy nominations, Kanye proved to change the sound of modern hip-hop music. In a massive attempt to avoid the sophomore jinx, Kanye surrounded himself with proven guest artists and enlisted the help of Jon Brion, renowned for his distinctive production work for the likes of Fiona Apple, Aimee Mann and many film scores.\nAs talented as he is, a Kanye West-produced album always sounds amazing, often mixing live instrumentation with bits from classics, complex drum patterns and an array of sound. However, despite all of Kanye's efforts to change his sound, all Kanye did was trade in his trademark sped-up sampled style for songs with regular speed samples. I say if it's not broke don't fix it. \nKanye gets props for reaching out to non-traditional guests, including an impressive appearance from Adam Levine of Maroon 5 and also fail-safe artists like Nas, Jay-Z and several less spectacular appearances from Brandy, Paul Wall and others.\nBut the star of the show is, of course, Kanye. He wouldn't want it any other way, and neither would his listeners.\nKanye is at his lyrical best on "Crack Music" where he tells tales of "when our heroes and heroines got hooked on heroin," discusses political conspiracies or truths (you decide) and parallels the crack epidemic to America's addiction to hop-hop music. \nOn "Addiction" a spellbinding production feat, which samples the classic "My Funny Valentine," Kanye discusses his inner conflicts of pleasure and pain.\nOn the popular single "Diamonds from Sierre Leone (Remix)" Kanye delivers a classic, but is eclipsed, understandably, by the dominating force of Jay-Z. However, on several songs, Kanye's average flow shows up, as amazing production can only do so much.\n"Hey Mama," an ode to Kanye's mother, though sincere, is largely unspectacular, and has been done before, and better (à la Tupac). \nThe problem with Late Registration is the subject content. Kanye has some good moments, and very few great ones, which is a major difference between this album, and the last. To be a memorable album there must be a balance of lyrics and production. At the end of the day this rap album is a little light on the rap. His lyrics are best on songs with less heartfelt material, but the songs that deserve lyrical prowess are often strangely average. Rap fans listen to rap music to hear rap; the production, which the album is centered on, just barely pushes this album above average.