Graduation

If <i>College Dropout</i> was our introduction and <i>Late Registration</i> a victory lap for a newly anointed champion, then <i>Graduation</i> crystallizes Kanye West's stratospheric success in 24-carat surround sound. Kanye's third album pushes his reflexive rhymes and musical imagination to new places. "Good Life" is a layer cake of silver-gilded synths that lets the listener bask in Kanye's luxurious dream life for three vivid minutes, while the Daft Punk-sampling "Stronger" beams us into a futuristic dance party, awash in neon color.