Late Registration

Late Registration is an undeniable triumph, packed front to back, so expansive it makes the debut sound like a rough draft.

Late Registration's salvation (and, undoubtedly, Kanye's own) are when it basks in the sunshine after the rain.

Each of these songs offers more exquisite details than I could earmark in twice this space, many of them literary, which the English prof's dropout son rightly claims as his calling. But secret brilliance is more likely to emerge from the sops to his hip-hop base.

By freshening up his style without entirely abandoning it, West still has the rest of the rap world playing catch-up.

"Late Registration" feels more comfortable in its own skin than its predecessor.

The sprawling Late Registration is the year's most accomplished rap album, and in turn, he's done something that his heroes-- the Pharcyde and Nas, and father figure Jay-Z-- couldn't do: deliver on a promise the second time around.

The music offers further evidence of how far outside rap's usual strictures West operates. OutKast aside, mainstream hip-hop doesn't really do ambiguity or irony, but just as West's arrogance occasionally appears to be a protracted joke, Late Registration finds him in thrillingly subversive form, working in the production booth to undercut tracks' messages and shifting their meanings.

West and Brion are a good, if unlikely, match.

The biggest problem with Late Registration though is Kanye's verses; he's not a great MC, but he doesn't know it.

West is still a better assembler of talent than he is an MC.

A dynamic piece of work.

Remarkably consistent and almost infinitely enjoyable.

Late Registration can't replicate the novelty of last year's College Dropout, but otherwise, this is an impressively more mature and labored-over album.

It's a cleverly and thoughtfully composed album, bereft of filler and loaded with style and substance.

By the end of this 21-track opus, you still might not like West's self-assured declarations, but you will not be able to deny his talent.

Late Registration... definitely mines familiar terrain, but West’s zeal for clever wordplay juxtaposed with his unflinching confidence makes for a charismatic and often electrifying punch.

Late Registration, is every bit as ambitious as its predecessor, but without Dropout's strong narrative, it's less successful in realizing that ambition.

[An] even more ambitious, superbly crafted follow-up. [28 Aug 2005]

A masterful sophomore disc on which every weak rhyme, guest and beat has been ironed out through months of hard work and several blown deadlines. [Oct/Nov 2005, p.120]

Mostly brilliant. [Aug 2005, p.88]

Is it uneven? Yes. Self-indulgent? Unbearably, at times. But that's what makes West one of hip-hop's most exciting, funny, and human stars. He's unafraid to make a big, fat mess. [Sep 2005, p.130]

Practically every track on Late Registration is a glorious pop song. [Aug 2005, p.120]

There are still too many touchy-feely songs. [Oct 2005, p.161]

Late Registration is more cumbersome and burdened than its predecessor--a little less cohesive, a lot less fun--but it rarely fails to engross at nearly every step. [2 Sep 2005, p.77]

As ornate and bloated as West's ego. [Sep 2005, p.99]