I ended up with an advance copy of Kanye West's forthcoming Graduation (due Sept. 11) as well as Talib Kweli's new Ear Drum. Overall, I should spin each of them a few more times before really passing judgement, but I'm initially pleasantly surprised by one and surprisingly let down by the other.

Much has been made of 50 Cent's public proclamation that he would "quit music" if Graduation outsold his concurrently-released Curtis, but even if Kanye's album lands that punch (which it looks like it will, given the presale numbers), I'm not sure there's too much else worth celebrating about it. The production isn't pedestrian, but it isn't remarkable, either. The rhymes, on the other hand, seem uncharachteristically half-baked. I've come to expect Kanye's lyrics to be bold, insightful, quick-witted, or at least quotable, but all of those qualities seem to be in short supply. Even clever couplets like "I've been on ya since Prince was on Appollonia" (from the queasy groupies-come-hither club track & first single "Stronger") wear out their welcome after being inexplicably repeated several times, and non-clever ones like "some'd do anything for a Klondike / well, I'd do anything for a blonde dyke" fall cringingly flat upon first recitation. And while the invocation of Barry Bonds' name on the track of the same title seems rife with possibility (a black man reviled in the press for his cocksure attitude and inherently suspect success? ready the parallel-drawing pen), it's mostly mined for lazy sports metaphors (Kanye and Barry both "make hits"-- get it?). I'll spend more time with the record, of course-- Kanye has a spotless enough track record with me in the past that I want to get into this one-- but after being so instantly smitten with his previous efforts, I'm pretty disappointed that the only really arresting moment upon first listen came during the bonus tracks (the awesomely stoned vibe of "Us Placers", which finds Kanye, Lupe Fiasco, and Pharrell laconically rapping over Thom Yorke's "The Eraser" [listen]).

Luckily, expectations were easily exceeded by the other new hip-hop release I laid ears on this week. I've always found it fascinating that after parting ways from Black Star, Mos Def and Talib Kweli have both seemed to cultivate personas that were the exact inverse of the dynamic they occupied in that seminal group-- the charismatic Mos Def has become dense, dark, and political, assembling the Black Jack Johnson band as a (frequently mirthless) attempt to reclaim a place for blacks in the recorded history of rock music and even going so far as to obstruct his face behind a kerchief on 2004's The New Danger and issue 2006's The New Magic completely art (and artifice)-free, while the bookish Kweli has labored to affect an image both flashy and accessible. Unfortunately, for Talib that approach has mostly led to ill-advised bangers like Train of Thought's "Move Something" (replete with flashbulb sound effects that sound as canned as ancient sitcom laugh tracks) and "Back Up Offa Me", but on Ear Drum, it's surprisingly successful. For the first time, the results don't seem forced-- Kweli has never sounded more listenable than on the shimmering "Country Cousins", a collegial shoutout from his concrete jungle-informed urban intellectualism to the stylistically divergent output of his Dirty South contemporaries, graced by an extended cameo from UGK. Elsewhere, he waxes seductive on the flirty "Hot Thing" (and at least leavens lines like "I love your city sass / I love your country ass" with praise for the way the object of his affection slyly defuses racism and sexism, and has the good sense to rhyme "bounce like a '64 Chevy" with "we can go steady"), which features a hook that'll irreversibly worm its way into many a titular organ. He also manages to infuse his trademark egg-headedness into most of the tracks in a way that isn't distracting-- a jam like "Hostile Gospel" explores complex spiritual questions but features production by Just Blaze that sounds great coming out of yr speakers regardless of the lyrical content. Overall, it's a delight to hear an album as uniformly excellent as Ear Drum coming from anyone, but even more so from a genre vet who has heretofore had a somewhat inconsistent solo career.

Anyone else had a chance to check out either of these records?

~Rae