Kanye West - Graduation Reviews

My breakdown, agree with me or not, but I'll let you know that Kanye's CD's are the only ones I buy when they come out and I've given College Dropout and Late Registration multiple spins over the years:

Good Morning - Starts off too slow, never really picks up into a banger. Jay-Z's part is alright at the end, coulda used even more of him.

Champion - Nice uptempo beat, alright synth I guess, but the repeating sample infringes on Kanye's voice a bit.

Stronger - The most original song on the album, and even though it doesn't feel authentic cause it's become whored out as a single, it sounds even better on the album cause the techno contrasts so well with the rest of the soul-sample songs.

I Wonder - When this beat drops in, it's great. It's a solid song but nothing spectacular or special. I do like his staggered delivery though.

Good Life - Wow, this is by far my favorite on the album. T-Pain doesn't annoy or dominate the track like he usually does on songs he's on. The chipmunky sample sounds great and the beat is one of the few that sounds happy on the album, which is something it's really missing, in the Gold Digger/Touch The Sky vein of his other songs. Feels longer than it actually is, but I could listen to a 5 minute version of this and still love it.

Can't Tell Me Nothing - This is where the album starts to drop off a bit, in theme and actual quality of the songs. The sample is overpowering and annoying, Jeezy seems really outta place, and he should've at least given him a verse (which is the other thing lacking from the album, more guest spots, it's not really a hip-hop album if there's not someone else on every second song).

Barry Bonds - Kind of a Drive Slow vibe anyone? That's what it reminds me of. I have to agree with a lot of the reviews I read before listening to the album, the fact that this is more appropriate for a mixtape. The puns are really good of course, but he used that same sample of "wheh-wheh-wheh-wheh" on the "This Ain't A Scene..." remix. Weezy's also done much better work.

Drunk and Hot Girls - Funny song, I'll give him that much. I read somewhere though that this song would sound much better at twice the speed, so I'd love to see a remix. The part where he makes fun of the girl's singing is the best for me.

Flashing Lights - Grew on me a bit, and reminds me of "Bring Me Down" from LR, except it eases in instead of dropping in. The mix of beats is really good, and I think overall he shoulda kept stuff more uptempo like he does here. Dwele definitely has the best cameo here aside from T-Pain and John Mayer. One of the better songs on the album and where it starts to pick up again.

Everything I Am - Cool style mixing Toomp's scratching with the soul, and this one reminds me of Last Call in a way. I'm a chump for any hip-hop with a piano anyways. Great message too.

Glory - Feels like Mo-Town to me, and it sounds great. He shows off a bit of the cockiness and has some fun in this one too, so I liked that about it. The sample really does it for me too, even though it loops kinda loud, it's girly enough that it doesn't interrupt his flow if you know what I mean.

Homecoming - This one really took me by surprise, I didn't know he was gonna re-use "Home", cause I remember that track from about 2 years ago and I loved it. For some reason both choruses killed it, whether it was that older sample or Chris Martin, who does a great job here too. The saloon piano? Pure genius, I don't even know where he got the idea, but it's really original and actually works out well.

Big Brother - I get the idea behind it, but it sounds like a muted version of a Jay-Z song, and it's nut-riding at its finest. His acclaim for Jay shoulda ended with "Last Call", where he pretty much explained the relationship as well as anyone woulda cared to hear. Kinda gets annoying too and drags on, and it comes to a point with the "No way jose" line that's really annoying.

*Bittersweet - Now why the hell wouldn't this be on the North American release? I'd call it my favorite on the album, but I can't really since it wasn't released with it. Could've easily replaced "Big Brother" as the last track or even came after it. Fits the theme of the album great, Mayer is great on the chorus, Kanye has some great, great lines (my favorite being "you talk about her family, her aunt's and shit/and she say "Mahfucka, your mama's a bitch") and the way the beat fades out at the end is a much better finish than Big Brother.

As for the other songs left off the NA release, I haven't heard them, so I can't say anything.

University

Whooo, first day and it's already going great. Every class is supposed to be 75 minutes long, but I took a microeconomics course with the "best professor you'll have" (it was on ratemyprofessors.com) and he was not only letting people in late, but he told us our textbooks were useless (a waste of reading and basically a $150 dictionary, which I'd thankfully not spent yet) and that we didn't have to take either mid-term, making our final worth 100%. Best of all, he let us out of 8:30am class after 20 minutes, and told us to "enjoy our first day of university".

It's much better than I thought in the first place, I've seen enough of my friends, and the atmosphere here is great. For anyone who's currently in high school, and relishes that kind of freedom, it's about tenfold here. You don't have to go to any classes, and you have more than ample time in between them. Best of all, I have every Friday off, and we're one of the few universities to have that.

Songs...

Two new ones I like:

"Perfect Gentleman" - Wyclef Jean
"Bad Girl" - Dave Spoon ft. Lisa Mafia

Dunno why I even like that last one, I used to hate techno with a passion, I'm not sure what changed, but it's got a great beat and alright lyrics, so go figure. I like it.

deviantART

Finally got around to getting one these. Check it out...

http://opaljagger.deviantart.com/

Cartoons?

Whatever happened to Saturday morning cartoons? It used to be all you could watch on most networks from like 7am-3pm every Saturday, but now you're lucky if they show any at all. What the hell happened to the idea of entertaining kids with cartoons on the first day of the weekend? I remember when I used to get so excited for all the shows on that day, the way I get excited for a Sunday of NFL nowadays. It's sad I think, and a lot of kids today are missing out on what was really a staple for anyone in my generation.

Whaat?!

Forgot to put this one the other day or anytime before this, but I was thinking about it at work.

Blender magazine (that Maxim/music mix one, which is actually a pretty decent publication, considering it comes from the same guys who bring you scantily-clad women and beer and barbecue tips every month) had a list of the "Top 100 Hottest Things Right Now", and I thought the list was pretty decent...until I got to number 1, and found out it was...Andy Samberg? Like what the fuck? I was literally shocked to see him there. Hot Rod looks stupid, and even though I enjoyed "Dick In A Box" on SNL, I really doubt it's been his year. Sure he got the cover...

Anyways, I got to thinking today, and it really shoulda just stopped at number 2, Lil' Wayne. To pre-face this, I'm not exactly one for gangster rap, and I used to just despise Weezy's voice and lyrics until I started hearing more and more of him, and he began using his raspiness and wit in a better manner. Now he's everywhere, seems to have a new song out every week, and it's actually quality and quantity. Plus I've read articles in everything from The New Yorker to Scratch to GQ about him and how he's on top of the hip-hop game right now. There's one guy whose year it's been.

The other thing I found rather amusing was that going through the UK edition of Esquire, they had the cover line of "The best comedy on TV you've never seen" so that kinda intrigued me. I get around to it, and guess what? It's Saturday Night Live. Like go figure, one of the staples of American television, and most Brits have never seen it I guess. I would've thought anyone who'd seen any SNL alums acting would've found out about the show, you know, after like 30 years, but I guess not.

Last Day of Work

So I finally finished work today after more than 4 months I think. Made a lot of new friends, who I might not ever see again, which kinda sucks. I learned old women can be cool (Trish) some can be annoying (Judy), and nothing beats being one of the only guys at a female-dominated workplace. I mean, I think I spent as much time flirting as counting cash at the end of the night (by the way, counting cash is basically free money...you sit there and just frigging count money...on company time).

I also learned that working 5am shifts suck. Yeah, you get out earlier, like 2:30pm, but waking up at 4am and being tired all day are some pretty bad trade-offs for that. Finally, I learned what it's like to have a semi-steady job. For one thing, I could never imagine doing that job day in and day out for years like some people have. Just working the cash, keeping the store tidy, all that stuff? Even for the brief summer that I worked there there were times when I felt I was gonna go crazy.

Alas though, I actually had quite a shitty day. I broke up with my girlfriend last week, and since I was the one who did it, I actually took it pretty well considering. Then I sent her an email last night apologizing for something that came to my mind, and she blasted me with the most bitter email I've ever got this morning. All day long I finally realized how she must've felt this whole time, and that took it's toll on me, cause up until today, I'd pretty much come out unscathed from the whole episode. Anyways, I guess you learn from everything, and that's all I have to take away from that.

Songs

Oh yeah, from time to time I'll post songs I'm listening to a lot of or that I really like right now.

"Rockstar" - Nickelback
"Sober" - Kelly Clarkson
"The Best Of You" - Foo Fighters
"The Take Over, The Break's Over" - Fall Out Boy
"Over You" - Daughtry
"Apologize Remix" - One Republic ft. Lil' Wayne & Bun B.
"Love Is Gone" - David Guetta
"Because Of You Remix" - Ne-Yo ft. Kanye West
"Sweetest Girl" - Wyclef Jean ft. Akon, Lil' Wayne and Nia
"Tongue Tied" - Faber Drive
"Teenagers" - My Chemical Romance
"Do It" - Nelly Furtado

3:48am

Wow, it's way too late to be up. Getting some songs to put on my new laptop. For one thing, this is pretty much gonna be dominated by my thoughts about songs among other things. Right now "Guitar" by Prince is playing, and all the reviews said it was a good, ripping, guitar-crazy song, but it actually sounds pretty muted, and Prince's voice is too far away in my opinion. Nothing will top his performance of "Best Of You" at the Super Bowl this year anyways, he killed what was already a great song.

"Last Night" is playing now, and that song'll probably never get old for me. Come on, how has nobody else used that beat as well as Diddy has? Bom, cha-cha, bom, cha/bom, cha-cha, bom, cha...like it's ridiculous, same way "We Will Rock You" seems so obviously good...obviously not as classic, but you know what I mean.

Last day of work tomorrow...by the way, never work at an airport like I did. For one thing...you never get regulars, so everyone you meet is only once, unless you're somehow scheduled for the time the people fly out and then amazingly for the time they come back too...it's happened though. The other thing...don't work in a toy store...with shitty toys you can't play with. You'd think that'd be a dream job, right? Everybody grows up loving toys, and then you end up working in a store full of them...and it blows. Maybe it's just a guy thing, all the girls seem to love working there.

I'd be surprised if anyone ever does read this regularily, but it's a good way to put down thoughts, and all I ever read is "blog-this, blog-that" in every single magazine. Elton John even thinks bloggers and the Internet are ruining creativity...but then again the man wears pink sunglasses and marries other men. But then again he did "Rocket Man" and "Candle In The Wind" so I guess everything balances out.

I wish this blog coulda been about all the random shit I read in the magazines at work, but that'll be over by tomorrow. You wouldn't believe the kinda stuff that's in magazines. Some article in the New Yorker about people with a condition where you eat off your own fingers cause you're deathly afraid of them, and where you swear and hit the people you like the most uncontrollably.

And then the trash magazines, all those celebrity ones...ugh. They happen to find the most appropriate pic for their outrageous headline, like "Angie crying out for help, reaches 28 lbs" or something stupid like that, where it's one of her head down, face scrunched up and not wearing any make-up, or using a pic from Britney Spears shooting a video where she's on a strip pole in like chaps along with a headline of like "Brit dances at club, gets drunk, gropes college student, all in front of her sons". Frankly, I think she got that kid to drive the first time just so none of her friends have to be the DD whenever all the girls go out.

Anyways, that's number one of probably a lot, and I guess I'm gonna be wasting hours of my life on this thing from now on. And you'd better read it.