Album of the day (#1287): Late Registration by Kanye West

[albummaster]

Today's album of the day

Late Registration by Kanye West (View album | Buy this album)

Year: 2005.
Country:
Overall rank: 415
Average rating: 78/100 (from 284 votes).

Thumbnail. Click to enlarge.

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

About album of the day: The BestEverAlbums.com album of the day is the album appearing most prominently in member charts in the previous 24 hours. If an album, or artist, has previously been selected within a x day period, the next highest album is picked instead (and so on) to ensure a bit of variety. A full history of album of the day can be viewed here.

[Precedent]

His weakest solo effort, but it's still fantastic!

Key Tracks:

Diamonds From Sierra Lione
Diamonds From Sierra Leone (Remix) featuring Jay-Z
Roses
Gold Digger
Hey Mama
Celebration

[Antonio-Pedro]

Coincidence?
Let's rank and a KW album of the day
mystery over BEA
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Top 100 Hits you must hear before the u... of beauty

[CubaZed]

[CubaZed]

[Mercury]

[Skinny]

His masterpiece. From 2003 to 2007 was the only time in his career where he struck the right balance between his bombastic pop ambitions and his considerable hip-hop chops, without pretending to be something he isn't, either through getting ideas above his station or otherwise ignoring his roots, and Late Registration is the pinnacle of that period. It features his strongest collection of songs ('Touch The Sky', 'Heard 'em Say', 'Crack Music', 'Bring Me Down', 'Roses', 'My Way Home', the none-more-majestic 'We Major', whose beat is possibly my favourite of all-time), a series of guests who may not be the biggest names ever but who each do a job that feels natural and bring their own strengths to the party, Kanye at his lovably corny, completely sincere, totally self-unaware best (check his heartfelt complaints about the healthcare system on 'Roses', where he quite rightly questions why Magic Johnson can get a cure for AIDs, but "broke motherfuckers" are still dying left, right and centre, or his subversive crack anti-anthem 'Crack Music', in which he claims that black communities who invested heavily in the drug got "Merrill-Lynched", a pun which quite brilliantly treads the line between fantastic and fucking terrible like only the best puns can), and a collection of instrumentals that extend hip-hop's average sonic palette to the point that the album almost feels like a Bacharach take on the genre without ever losing the essence of the genre itself, which I feel his later albums certainly did. Another of the reasons I would place this album top of the pile, albeit a lesser one, is that the skits are not only a more integral to the album and its themes than they were on his debut, but also just far more tolerable overall. My only qualm is the inclusion of two versions of 'Diamonds', but compared to the array of issues that plague his later work it's a minor quibble. This is where Kanye hit his peak, when he was striving to be a hip-hop superstar, and not a cultural superpower. This is back when his key target audience was still hip-hop fans, first and foremost, before he realised that he could gain a bigger reputation playing to a rockist audience and trying to make every album a "statement", as opposed to just making some relatable, if clumsy, statements within his albums. It's back when he still felt human, when he was still a person with a handle on the real world, trying to make sense of its issues over some sumptuous beats. This is Kanye at his very best, and it's a shame we'll never see that Kanye again.
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2021 in full effect. Come drop me some recs. Y'all know what I like.

[HoldenM]

Kanye West and Jon Brion? Hell yes. My second favorite Kanye album. So terrific.

Track picks
3. Touch The Sky featuring Lupe Fiasco
4. Gold Digger featuring Jamie Foxx
11. Addiction
13. Diamonds From Sierra Leone (Remix) featuring Jay-Z
16. Hey Mama
19. Gone
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Inversion Verses
https://thesplitinfinitives1.bandcamp.c...ion-verses

[Wombi]

Just such a detailed and wonderfully structured album, Brion's arrangements make it majestic and as nezzle pointed out West is constantly able to ride the line between cheesy tongue and cheek jests and making serious comments on important issues.

I don't want to compare it to his later stuff because he's not an artist who looks back and I hope he never does but it's certainly near the very top of his consistent output.

[mickilennial]

For me this is one of Kanye’s records that I consider really special, I go back and forth between appreciating a cycle of three albums from the man which you can tell from my post in the Let’s Rank thread. I definitely don’t think this is weak at all.