Late Registration

Kanye West - Late Registration
Critic Score
Based on 22 reviews
2005 Ratings: #20 / 512
User Score
2005 Rank: #2All Time: #129
Liked by 1,967 people
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CRITIC REVIEWS

100
Gigwise

All in all 'Late Registration' is exactly what commercial fans wanted and hip-hop fans needed.

100
AllMusic

West and Brion are a good, if unlikely, match. Brion's string arrangements and brass flecks add a new dimension to West's beats without overshadowing them, and the results are neither too adventurous nor too conservative.

100
Paste

In the end, it’s West’s dogged vision that makes it a success. He never acts before he deliberates, and never leaves a detail unpolished. 

100
Rolling Stone

He steps up his lyrical game, shows off his epic production skills, reaches higher, pushes harder and claims the whole world of music as hip-hop turf.

100
The Guardian

Like the rest of Late Registration, Drive Slow suggests an artist effortlessly outstripping his peers: more ideas, better lyrics, bigger hooks, greater depth.

95
Pitchfork

With the help of co-producer Jon Brion, West has taken his jumbled personae, buoyant enthusiasm, and vision for the grandiose, and transformed his chattering, seemingly unrealistic ideas into an expansive, imperfect masterpiece.

90
AllHipHop

Musicality aside, one of the most refreshing characteristics of Late Registration is its humanity.

83
SPIN

Though West showcases a more versatile, eccentric flow than on Dropout, it pales in comparison to his sonic ambition.

83
Entertainment Weekly

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.

80
Evening Standard

The 22-track monster is a valiant attempt to please all of the people all of the time.

80
Q Magazine

Practically every track on Late Registration is a glorious pop song.

80
The Independent
A mature, intelligent album that refuses to conform to hip-hop conventions, not least in its avoidance of gangsta cliché.
80
Uncut

Second enthralling album from hip-hop’s rapping, producing, multi-faceted new hero.

80
HipHopDX

From a technical and musical standpoint this is definitely stronger than his debut, but what is that worth when you just can’t feel it? Don’t get me wrong, it is still a really good album…it just isn’t a really great one.

80
NME

‘Late Registration’ is a solid set. And by freshening up his style without entirely abandoning it, West still has the rest of the rap world playing catch-up.

79
Coke Machine Glow

Late Registration is a mainstream shot at being bigger than genre boundaries, a larger-than-life, lavishly funded attempt at erasing the stagnation that's come from nearly a decade of hip-hop having changed mostly through internal factionalizing.

70
Slant Magazine

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

70
PopMatters

Together, Brion and West have made the most musically ambitious hip-hop album since Outkast’s Aquemini. But what prevents Late Registration from achieving that unequivocal classic status is Kanye’s alter ego: Kanye, the rapper.

70
Tiny Mix Tapes

Late Registration is still a pretty good, albeit flawed, album, and it's still great to have someone as exciting as Kanye making pop music today.

60
NOW Magazine
It's apparent how horrible this might've been without Brion's creative input, which also involves string and brass arrangements on the best track, Bring Me Down. Hopefully, Brion was well-paid for this save.
60
Prefix

Undoubtedly, Kanye West thinks his new album can be the best hip-hop album of all time. But because he has nothing real to talk about, because he isn’t crafting protest songs or timeless morality tales, the music shoots off into the atmosphere with nowhere to arrive.

50
Drowned in Sound

For all Kanye's meditation on the wrongs of his upbringing and surroundings, you can't help but find that his statements ring a little hollow. Maybe it's the clinical production masking his rapping, but more likely it's that it just sounds forced.

BradTasteMusic
97

Running back through Kanye West’s discography, I feel like this is the album I’d almost never revisit since my first and only encounter. I gave this thing another listen today and it was amazing hour of pure bliss. It’s an album that lets me understand what perfection in Kanye’s abilities looks like. Every beat is fantastic and soulful. Kanye is at the highest in his career lyrically and conceptually. Every feature is perfect. My god this is such a magnificent piece of ... read more

August
100

he skkrong

KIDWITHGUNs
100

🎤 🎤 🎤 🎤 🎤

I think one word I can use to describe the albums I gift perfect scores are "pure".

They all provide the kind of experiences I fail to find anywhere else. *Plastic Beach* is a tense-less journey through an island of paradise that seems too good to be true. *Stankonia* is a gorgeous voyage through incomparable landscapes that always leaves me speechless by the conclusion. And *Deltron 3030* depicts a world that feels exaggerated yet not completely unlikely ... read more

souleaterwill
85

DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER

A great followup to College Dropout, doesn't shine quite as brightly but still extremely good.

Fav Track: Diamonds in Sierra Leone (Remix)
Least Fav Track: The skits... feels like cheating but who cares

RCRecords
81

Great 2nd Album; Could have been Better
With all of the hype surrounding Kanye at the time Late Registration was an amazing album, but unfortunately, over time the album has declined slowly as its brothers Graduation and The College Dropout overshadow it in many if not all aspects. With that said it does not make it a bad album by any means, in fact, it showed off Kanye's skills in making consistent #1 songs.

Wake Up Mr. West - (skit)
Heard Em’ Say - 9/10
Touch The Sky - 9.75/10
Gold ... read more

mnartriam
95

L8 registr8ion

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Track List

1Wake Up Mr. West
0:41
83
2Heard 'Em Say
3:23
93
3Touch The Sky
3:56
96
4Gold Digger
3:27
92
5Skit #1
0:33
79
6Drive Slow
4:32
feat. Paul Wall, GLC
90
7My Way Home
1:43
feat. Common
85
8Crack Music
4:30
feat. The Game
86
9Roses
4:05
95
10Bring Me Down
3:18
feat. Brandy
87
11Addiction
4:27
86
12Skit #2
0:31
79
13Diamonds From Sierra Leone (Remix)
3:53
feat. JAY-Z
96
14We Major
7:28
95
15Skit #3
0:24
78
16Hey Mama
5:05
95
17Celebration
3:18
86
18Skit #4
1:18
85
19Gone
5:33
90
20Diamonds From Sierra Leone
3:58
Bonus Track
92
21Late
3:50
Hidden Track
90
Total Length: 1 hour, 10 minutes

Year End Lists

#1/Rolling Stone
#1/SPIN
#2/Pitchfork
#8/NME
#14/Gigwise
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