Kanye West retrospective, part 3: Graduation

The end of an era. 

Graduation marks the final album of West's "everyman" era. Many regard this to be the end of Kanye's "classic" era, as is shown by the mixed reaction to his following album and the simple fact that Kanye nostalgia seems to end here. Graduation was also accompanied by a free online mixtape, though the official download is most likely no longer available.

Graduation is marked by Kanye changing his sound again. The grandiose orchestration of Late Registration is replaced with synth lines, though compositionally it's still recognizably Kanye. A lot of these songs sound like they could be on Late Registration if it weren't for the synths. However, I find that a lot of Graduation is actually catchier than Late Registration, and possibly even more fun. Late Registration is grand and operatic, while Graduation is a bit more down-to-earth. Graduation's songs would likely be excellent live, because of the pounding bass and the catchy synth lines. The album is predominantly upbeat musically, which again serves to make the album more purely enjoyable. 

On the other hand, the focus of Kanye's lyricism has inverted. Instead of the observations that characterized his previous albums, he's now primarily focusing on introspection. The various topics he covers relate primarily to himself, though he still tries to make it relateable. This trend towards introversion and self-focused lyrics would dominate his style in consecutive albums. Kanye's rhyme flow is also simpler in this album, with the intention of getting across his themes more easily and making his songs work better live. Graduation paints Kanye as a mixture of egotistical and self-doubting, which serves to make his persona more compelling in the absence of complex topics being discussed. 

Graduation is the point where Kanye ditched the skits, and the album benefits from it. Without the skits, this album serves as a purely musical and lyrical endeavour. There's no overlong joke about degrees, there's no Broke Phi Broke, not even a "Wake Up, Mr. West". I wouldn't say this makes the album better than The College Dropout or Late Registration, as those were thematically and lyrically stronger as well as having more ambition. Graduation lacks the freshness of College Dropout or the scale of Late Registration, but thankfully it at least maintains the pure quality of both.

Graduation represents Kanye slowing down to take a look at himself. For the most part, it's successful, though it's brought down a bit due to its lesser ambitions. All the same, though, it still represents Kanye at the top of his game, and serves as an excellent piece of music. It's also the last thing Kanye did with this persona. Next we look at 808s and Heartbreak.