Can anyone defend Kanye West's "Late Registration" on all these year-end lists?

Cafe Society
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I just think that it’s a very poor record, almost the perfect definition of a “sophomore slump” album, so I’m shocked to see it turning up in the top-5 on all these year-end best album lists.

I loved The College Dropout - it was the sound of a smart, young guy with a fresh approach to beatmaking and a very defined artistic voice and platform. The singles were amazing, but there was actually very little filler, with some really hot non-single tracks hidden in there.

But Late Registration just feels lazy and rushed to me and fails to exhibit 1/10 of the personality of The College Dropout. Where are the hooks, the big choruses? “Gold Digger” would have been considered filler, inferior to even the non-single tracks on The College Dropout, and it’s supposed to be the single from this record? Astonishing.

I think that there are a few - a very few - good tracks on Late Registration. “Drive Slow” is really hot, and reminds me of the better beats that came out of Kanye mentor No ID’s work with Common back when he was still called Common Sense. Paul Wall is a weird choice for a guest on the track, but it still works. I even like how they screw and chop the end of it, though Kanye’s about as Dirty South as Chicago Deep-Dish pizza. :wink: “On my way home” is nice, too, and sounds like something from the first album or even Kanye’s earlier production work - subtle, minimal, and based around a great choice of a loop.

And, well, that’s about it. The rest of the album sounds like uninspired filler, overengineered and overproduced with too many guests and no soul. Bringing in the Maroon 5 guy to sing the chorus on “Tomorrow Today” is like using that Bobby Vinton sample for Akon’s hit single “Mr. Lonely” earlier this year - it betrays an almost hilariously white approach to what should be soul music. Kanye may as well have brought in John Mayer to croon it, and Kenny G to add some “authentic” jazz licks in the tradition of Coltrane! :smack: You’re Kanye West! You’re on top of the world! Get freaking Prince. Get Pharrell. Bring D’Angelo out of retirement!

So, seriously, can someone defend this album other than trotting out “it’s just good and stuff”-type replies? I’m honestly baffled.

Here’s my theory; when The College Dropout came out, Kanye wasn’t a household name. Sure, Through the Wire was in constant rotation on MTV, but your average Soccer Mom didn’t know who he was in the way that they do n ow. Because of this, people that “slept” on the album (weren’t aware of it or attuned to it) until it won a Grammy are overcompensating by indiscriminately praising Late Registration so that they feel like they’re hip and got in on the ground floor with this one.

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It didn’t do anything that TCD didn’t do, but I thought the interesting production and the fun lyrics and delivery carried over.

“Golddigger” is fun and catchy. “Touch the Sky”, “Addiction”, “Drive Slow”, “Crack Music”, “Celebration”, “Diamonds from Sierra Leone”, and “Roses” are all great tracks. I even liked “Heard 'em Say” despite the presence of the Maroon 5 guy; I guess I heard it for what it was rather than for what it could have been.

I was totally prepared to toss it off as a sophomore slump, since there was no way it could be as good as TCD (and it wasn’t). But after I gave it a few listens, it engaged me and stuck with me the same way TCD did.

There may be something to your theory, but it isn’t the soccer moms and such making the year-end lists; Pitchfork, for one, was certainly on the ground floor for TCD, so it’s hard to say they’re giving make-up praise.