A certain 50 Cent-baiting, MTV-bashing, rap star making music headlines? It must be time for a new Kanye West album.

Graduation was always going to have to meet high expectations, touted as the final part in his ‘school trilogy’, it was supposed to mark the end of an era. Whereas the first two albums, 2003’s The College Dropout and 2005’s Late Registration, traced the evolution of an artist-in-development, as the title of this third release suggests, here is Kanye fully-formed and stepping up to the plate as global superstar. As the tune ‘Champion’ has it, “Lauryn Hill said her heart was in Zion, I wish her heart was still in rhymin’/cause who the kids gonna listen to/Huh? I guess it’s me if it isn’t you.”

It’s safe to say that all this success has somewhat gone to his head. While West’s strength was always in rapping about things that didn’t gravitate around the usual rap clichés (namely drugs, money and hoes), or at least approached them with greater depth, it seems that he’s now found something of a far greater orbit – himself.

To accuse Kanye West of being arrogant, however is redundant – he’s well aware of it – but where previously he broke up the braggadocio with a sense of humour. Graduation is devoid of any of the between-track skits that sprinkled his earlier albums. The downbeat melancholy of “Drunk and Hot Girls” is as tongue-in-cheek as things get, the tone though (bouncing off of Mos Def) is all wrong – sour-faced and almost whiny.

All of this could be forgiven if the music was dazzling, as it stands its merely serviceable. Kanye regulars Common, Jamie Foxx and even Jay-Z are missing and yet it feels overly-familiar with the usual references to Mama West, Louis Vitton and, *ahem*, dykes (of the non dam variety). There’s some real suspect rhyming too. More than once does West commit the uninspired sin of rhyming the same word; Plane with plane on ‘Good Life,’ home with home on ‘Homecoming’ and even Coldplay with Coldplay on ‘Big Brother’ to name just a few. Best to focus on West as producer then.

The heralding single, the Daft Punk-sampling ‘Stronger’ instructed listeners to “bow in the presence of greatness” and acted as a taster for the synth heavy tone of the new album, but this is the only new colour in West’s palette. It seems that he has used up all the flashy tricks up his sleeve on his previous two outings, making use of the same tinkling piano and sped up soul samples – still the point is they are his tricks. As ‘The Glory’ or ‘Good Life’ highlight, there is still something of a distinctive Kanye sound in his way with a good sample.

It’s not all gloomy, the final leg is most enjoyable. From ‘Flashing Lights,’ a party tune about paparazzi, through to the Jay-Z tribute ‘Big Brother’ it’s the rap celebrity doing what he does best – including crossover appeal with the appearance of Chris Martin on ‘Homecoming.’ By his own barometer though, West has set the bar too high for himself and thus fallen short of the mark. Hopefully now that school’s out, so to speak, Kanye West will re-invent himself as an artist who’s as interested in pushing hip hop’s boundaries as he is in his own reflection.

Rating: 3/5