It's hard not to call Graduation Kanye West's crowning achievement to date. Gone are the annoying skits and intros that plagued Late Registration. In their stead are thirteen cuts that leave the listener feeling even a little bit slighted on the light side when all is said and done. The album opens with the soft samplings of Jay-Z on "Good Morning." Some creative rhyming on this cut: "I'm like a fly Malcolm X/Buy any jeans necessary" makes it a nice introductory piece, and then it is immediately followed by "Champion", with a dead ringer for Lauryn Hill crooning away in the background. Lead single "Stronger" rocks the beat as track three, then it's the unique "I Wonder" and funky "Good Life" back-to-back before second single "Can't Tell Me Nothing." A phenomenally strong first side to the disc gets a bit sluggish in the middle with "Barry Bonds" (Lil Wayne's contribution is weak) and "Drunken Hot Girls" (why bother?), but then Kanye regains his footing with a strong finish. "Flashing Lights" and "The Glory" are total dance gems, while "Everything I Am," "Homecoming," and "Big Brother" are all perfectly felt emotional odes. (Indeed, Kanye's "Homecoming" collaboration with Chris Martin is even better than Jay Z's "Beach Chair" of last year.) Closing with "Brother"---a tribute song to Mr. Hovito----is a bit strange, but sometimes less is more, right? Clearly, Kanye is now as relevant and prevalent as any rapper/producer in the business. Three albums in, his production skills are untouchable, while his rhyming seems to have improved with each disc. A head-to-head "battle" with 50 Cent assured Graduation of some good sales, and it's no surprise to see the album debuting at number one with just about one million copies sold. A bit of a lull in the middle, and a tad short on total tracks, Kanye irregardless graduates from my CD player with a strong A- and hands-down the best hip hop release so far this year. -JAB P.S. Next up: Springsteen and the E Street Band drop Magic on Tuesday. |
Friday, September 28, 2007
Kanye West Back Strong with Graduation
Monday, September 17, 2007
September's Sports Takes
Bama Crusher for the Hogs
It could always be worse . . . You could be O.J. Simpson.
Still, for Razorback fans, it doesn't get much more painful than a 41-38 loss at Alabama on Saturday night. The Hogs coming back from 21 points down twice in the ballgame, only to lose on a John Parker Wilson-to-Matt Caddell TD toss with eight seconds left. Arkansas' tailbacks were phenomenal in defeat, with Darren McFadden (he is not human) rushing for 195 yards on a career-high 33 carries and Felix Jones chipping in with 96 yards of his own. McFadden was, simply, spectacular. None of his numbers came on runs longer than 24 yards. Six yards, eight yards, twelve, five, ten . . . The way D-Mac ripped off physically-pounding run after run impressed me more in this game than in any other of his performances. But the defense struggled mightily all game long, spotting the Crimson Tide a 21-0 lead after one quarter. It was 31-10 in the 2nd half before a ferocious Razorback rally saw Arkansas take the lead with eight minutes to go. All this, just to suffer, oh so painfully, as Nick Saban's crew chewed away at the deficit with a 42-yard Leigh Tiffin field goal and a punch-you-in-the-gut 73 yard game winning TD drive at the end.
You can pinpoint any number of areas in this one that hindered Arkansas' cause: the secondary was scorched, again, and rarely turned to look at incoming passes. Jerrell Norton: what are you doing, buddy? The defensive front was feeble in its pass rush (though decent against the run). Casey Dick struggled early, finishing 11 of 23, but had a couple of key drops, including one by Reggie Fish that could have gone for a touchdown. Indeed, wideout London Crawford was so excited to catch a pass in the open field that he fumbled the football untouched, killing another Arkansas drive in Alabama territory.
And then there's the coaching. I give Houston Nutt a lot of credit for keeping his team in the game---and sticking with the run---down by 21 points in the second half. But in Arkansas' final drive, with tailback Darren McFadden on the sideline suffering from a "slight" concussion, the Hogs tried to run the clock out and couldn't. The biggest play of the game, to me, was a 3rd and 12 with 2:30 left, the ball still inside of Arkansas' 40 yard line. Instead of running the ball and taking another 40-45 seconds off the clock (against an Alabama team that had no timeouts left), Nutt called for a rollout pass by Dick, which fell incomplete and saved the Tide a bunch of precious seconds.
A terrible pass interference call against Kevin Woods on a 3rd and 9 and a ridiculous clock delay for measurement with :21 seconds left both aided the Tide's win, but I hate to say a game was exclusively decided by the officials when it definitely was not.
It's always easy to go back and criticize things afterwards, but the fact of the matter is this: Arkansas is 1-1, 0-1 in the SEC, and has a tall task coming to Fayetteville this weekend in the shape and form of the Kentucky Wildcats. Led by All-Conference QB Andre Woodson, the Cats are better than most people think, and showed it by beating #8 Louisville this week. Barring significant defensive progress, it would not be much of a surprise to see Kentucky put a load of points on the board against the Hogs again this weekend.
Even with the best player in the country in Darren McFadden, it wouldn't be surprising if Arkansas were 0-2 in the league after Saturday.
Quick Hits from Week 2 of the NFL
-How do the Cleveland Browns score 51 points in a month, let alone in a single game? Truthfully, I have no idea. But that's just what they did this weekend, outscoring Cincinnati 51-45 behind 5 touchdown passes from Derek Anderson. (Doesn't he play basketball?) Of course 215 yards by RB Jamaal Lewis on the ground helped greatly (I guess he isn't finished), but it's still a really bad loss for the Bengals. Not time for the Brady Quinn era in the Rock and Roll city just yet.
-Meanwhile, the QB controversy in Jets land is on, and I don't understand why. A 20-13 loss to the Ravens wasn't all that surprising, and neither were the struggles of first-time starter Kellen Clemens. The quarterback from Oregon did absolutely nothing for three quarters against the stout Baltimore 'D', then got it going in the hurry-up and rallied the Jets for what should have been the tying score. (WR Justin McCareins missed two touchdown throws in the final 90 seconds.) Yet it's clear that New York's offense isn't the same without Chad Pennington on the field, and there's no question in my mind that he should be the starter next weekend at home against Miami. The fact that any Jets followers even consider Clemens the man for the job right now is kind of scary. The three times in Pennington's career when he's been healthy and on the field for most of the season, they've made the playoffs every time. Let's not get stupid and throw the season away after two weeks for experience's sake here, Mr. Mangini, okay?
-Can it be that the Dallas Cowboys are the best team in the NFC? Quite possibly. Just two games into the Wade Phillips' era, Big 'D' looks offensivly more potent than it has at any point since Troy Aikman retired. QB Tony Romo looks well over any ill effects of last year's post-season field goal snafu. Terrell Owens actually seems "happy" and he's dancing again all over the field again. And Marion Barber seems to be getting better with each and every game of his still-young career. Dallas' defense doesn't look anywhere near good enough yet, but that's Phillips' specialty, and it's no stretch to think it will be where it needs to be by the end of the year.
Major League Baseball Through to Final Two Weeks
Boston, Cleveland, the L.A. Angels . . . those three teams are locks for the postseason in the American League. The Yankees are all but a shoo-in for the Wild Card. The National League? Well, that's sort of a different story.
Nothing is fully settled yet, though it looks like the Mets and the Diamondbacks will get in. We know it'll be either the Brewers or the Cubbies in the Central now that the Cardinals have collapsed, but who'll be the NL Wild Card? Probably San Diego, but it could be the Phillies if they can get any pitching down the stretch. Philadelphia has now won an astonishing eight straight games against the Mets after a weekend sweep that still sees them at 3 1/2 games out. At the least, New York's team confidence has taken a major hit. At the most, the Mets could be in for an historic collapse.
I'll wait another ten days or so before giving out my end of the season awards, but as has been usual of late, it looks like all eight teams that make the playoffs are going to have a realistic chance to win the World Series.
OJ Squeezed by the Cops Again
Just a quick parting ponderance here, but what in the world goes on in O.J. Simpson's mind? Here he is, somehow a free man after everyone and their mother knows he got away with double homicide 12 years ago, and he gets himself arrested again? Craziness. Man, if I were O.J., at this point, I'd be wary of even jaywalking. Apparently Las Vegas police are pretty confident that Simpson and a bunch of his thieves broke into a hotel room filled with sports memorabilia last week and demanded they get it all---at gunpoint. Simpson claims most of the stuff taken was his, and has already tragicomically used the quote "what happens in Vegas is supposed to stay in Vegas" in his own defense, but it doesn't sound like there's any way the 60-year-old Simpson is going to avoid jail time on this one.
I know, I know, we all said the same thing about Simpson when he faked a suicide note, fled in a Bronco and put a gun to his head, before finally allowing police to arrest him for the murders of his ex-wife and her boyfriend more than twelve years ago. It looked like an obvious conviction for murder, but defense attorney Johnny Cochrane somehow worked his way out of it---"if the glove doesn't fit, you must acquit." But this time, O.J. is going down. Big time. Hey O.J., Johnny Cochrane isn't alive anymore. Maybe you should've thought about that before orchestrating this latest disaster.
On second thought, eliminate my initial ponderance. I was confused to have even had it. I realize now that I have absolutely no interest in knowing anything about what goes on in O.J. Simpson's twisted brain. It would freak me out way too much....
That's it for now, folks. I'm out.
-JAB
It could always be worse . . . You could be O.J. Simpson.
Still, for Razorback fans, it doesn't get much more painful than a 41-38 loss at Alabama on Saturday night. The Hogs coming back from 21 points down twice in the ballgame, only to lose on a John Parker Wilson-to-Matt Caddell TD toss with eight seconds left. Arkansas' tailbacks were phenomenal in defeat, with Darren McFadden (he is not human) rushing for 195 yards on a career-high 33 carries and Felix Jones chipping in with 96 yards of his own. McFadden was, simply, spectacular. None of his numbers came on runs longer than 24 yards. Six yards, eight yards, twelve, five, ten . . . The way D-Mac ripped off physically-pounding run after run impressed me more in this game than in any other of his performances. But the defense struggled mightily all game long, spotting the Crimson Tide a 21-0 lead after one quarter. It was 31-10 in the 2nd half before a ferocious Razorback rally saw Arkansas take the lead with eight minutes to go. All this, just to suffer, oh so painfully, as Nick Saban's crew chewed away at the deficit with a 42-yard Leigh Tiffin field goal and a punch-you-in-the-gut 73 yard game winning TD drive at the end.
You can pinpoint any number of areas in this one that hindered Arkansas' cause: the secondary was scorched, again, and rarely turned to look at incoming passes. Jerrell Norton: what are you doing, buddy? The defensive front was feeble in its pass rush (though decent against the run). Casey Dick struggled early, finishing 11 of 23, but had a couple of key drops, including one by Reggie Fish that could have gone for a touchdown. Indeed, wideout London Crawford was so excited to catch a pass in the open field that he fumbled the football untouched, killing another Arkansas drive in Alabama territory.
And then there's the coaching. I give Houston Nutt a lot of credit for keeping his team in the game---and sticking with the run---down by 21 points in the second half. But in Arkansas' final drive, with tailback Darren McFadden on the sideline suffering from a "slight" concussion, the Hogs tried to run the clock out and couldn't. The biggest play of the game, to me, was a 3rd and 12 with 2:30 left, the ball still inside of Arkansas' 40 yard line. Instead of running the ball and taking another 40-45 seconds off the clock (against an Alabama team that had no timeouts left), Nutt called for a rollout pass by Dick, which fell incomplete and saved the Tide a bunch of precious seconds.
A terrible pass interference call against Kevin Woods on a 3rd and 9 and a ridiculous clock delay for measurement with :21 seconds left both aided the Tide's win, but I hate to say a game was exclusively decided by the officials when it definitely was not.
It's always easy to go back and criticize things afterwards, but the fact of the matter is this: Arkansas is 1-1, 0-1 in the SEC, and has a tall task coming to Fayetteville this weekend in the shape and form of the Kentucky Wildcats. Led by All-Conference QB Andre Woodson, the Cats are better than most people think, and showed it by beating #8 Louisville this week. Barring significant defensive progress, it would not be much of a surprise to see Kentucky put a load of points on the board against the Hogs again this weekend.
Even with the best player in the country in Darren McFadden, it wouldn't be surprising if Arkansas were 0-2 in the league after Saturday.
Quick Hits from Week 2 of the NFL
-How do the Cleveland Browns score 51 points in a month, let alone in a single game? Truthfully, I have no idea. But that's just what they did this weekend, outscoring Cincinnati 51-45 behind 5 touchdown passes from Derek Anderson. (Doesn't he play basketball?) Of course 215 yards by RB Jamaal Lewis on the ground helped greatly (I guess he isn't finished), but it's still a really bad loss for the Bengals. Not time for the Brady Quinn era in the Rock and Roll city just yet.
-Meanwhile, the QB controversy in Jets land is on, and I don't understand why. A 20-13 loss to the Ravens wasn't all that surprising, and neither were the struggles of first-time starter Kellen Clemens. The quarterback from Oregon did absolutely nothing for three quarters against the stout Baltimore 'D', then got it going in the hurry-up and rallied the Jets for what should have been the tying score. (WR Justin McCareins missed two touchdown throws in the final 90 seconds.) Yet it's clear that New York's offense isn't the same without Chad Pennington on the field, and there's no question in my mind that he should be the starter next weekend at home against Miami. The fact that any Jets followers even consider Clemens the man for the job right now is kind of scary. The three times in Pennington's career when he's been healthy and on the field for most of the season, they've made the playoffs every time. Let's not get stupid and throw the season away after two weeks for experience's sake here, Mr. Mangini, okay?
-Can it be that the Dallas Cowboys are the best team in the NFC? Quite possibly. Just two games into the Wade Phillips' era, Big 'D' looks offensivly more potent than it has at any point since Troy Aikman retired. QB Tony Romo looks well over any ill effects of last year's post-season field goal snafu. Terrell Owens actually seems "happy" and he's dancing again all over the field again. And Marion Barber seems to be getting better with each and every game of his still-young career. Dallas' defense doesn't look anywhere near good enough yet, but that's Phillips' specialty, and it's no stretch to think it will be where it needs to be by the end of the year.
Major League Baseball Through to Final Two Weeks
Boston, Cleveland, the L.A. Angels . . . those three teams are locks for the postseason in the American League. The Yankees are all but a shoo-in for the Wild Card. The National League? Well, that's sort of a different story.
Nothing is fully settled yet, though it looks like the Mets and the Diamondbacks will get in. We know it'll be either the Brewers or the Cubbies in the Central now that the Cardinals have collapsed, but who'll be the NL Wild Card? Probably San Diego, but it could be the Phillies if they can get any pitching down the stretch. Philadelphia has now won an astonishing eight straight games against the Mets after a weekend sweep that still sees them at 3 1/2 games out. At the least, New York's team confidence has taken a major hit. At the most, the Mets could be in for an historic collapse.
I'll wait another ten days or so before giving out my end of the season awards, but as has been usual of late, it looks like all eight teams that make the playoffs are going to have a realistic chance to win the World Series.
OJ Squeezed by the Cops Again
Just a quick parting ponderance here, but what in the world goes on in O.J. Simpson's mind? Here he is, somehow a free man after everyone and their mother knows he got away with double homicide 12 years ago, and he gets himself arrested again? Craziness. Man, if I were O.J., at this point, I'd be wary of even jaywalking. Apparently Las Vegas police are pretty confident that Simpson and a bunch of his thieves broke into a hotel room filled with sports memorabilia last week and demanded they get it all---at gunpoint. Simpson claims most of the stuff taken was his, and has already tragicomically used the quote "what happens in Vegas is supposed to stay in Vegas" in his own defense, but it doesn't sound like there's any way the 60-year-old Simpson is going to avoid jail time on this one.
I know, I know, we all said the same thing about Simpson when he faked a suicide note, fled in a Bronco and put a gun to his head, before finally allowing police to arrest him for the murders of his ex-wife and her boyfriend more than twelve years ago. It looked like an obvious conviction for murder, but defense attorney Johnny Cochrane somehow worked his way out of it---"if the glove doesn't fit, you must acquit." But this time, O.J. is going down. Big time. Hey O.J., Johnny Cochrane isn't alive anymore. Maybe you should've thought about that before orchestrating this latest disaster.
On second thought, eliminate my initial ponderance. I was confused to have even had it. I realize now that I have absolutely no interest in knowing anything about what goes on in O.J. Simpson's twisted brain. It would freak me out way too much....
That's it for now, folks. I'm out.
-JAB
Thursday, September 06, 2007
2007 NFL Preview, Part II: The NFC
| NATIONAL FOOTBALL CONFERENCE NFC East (y)-Philadelphia Eagles (12-4) (x)-Dallas Cowboys (10-6) New York Giants (6-10) Washington Redskins (5-11) NFC North (y)-Chicago Bears (11-5) Minnesota Vikings (9-7) Green Bay Packers (7-9) Detroit Lions (4-12) NFC South (y)-New Orleans Saints (13-3) (x)-Carolina Panthers (10-6) Atlanta Falcons (6-10) Tampa Bay Buccaneers (5-11) NFC West (y)-Seattle Seahawks (11-5) Saint Louis Rams (9-7) San Francisco 49ers (8-8) Arizona Cardinals (5-11) (y- division winner x- wild card) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Playoffs: 1st Rd: Dallas over Chicago, Carolina over Seattle 2nd Rd: New Orleans over Dallas, Philadelphia over Carolina NFC Championship: New Orleans over Philadelphia Super Bowl: San Diego over New Orleans Best Head Coach: Sean Payton, New Orleans Best Offensive Player: Bryan Westbrook, Philadelphia Best Defensive Player: Brian Urlacher, Chicago |
Wednesday, September 05, 2007
2007 NFL Preview Part I: The AFC
AMERICAN FOOTBALL CONFERENCE Playoffs: 1st Rd: Indianapolis over Baltimore, Cincinnati over Denver |
Tuesday, September 04, 2007
Razorbacks Open 2007 With Familiar Recipe
For Arkansas, a 46-26 season opening victory over Troy was about what should have been expected. The Hogs looked great on the ground----DMac (151 yards), Felix Jones (129 yards), Michael Smith (58 yards)----as all the tailbacks chipped in, but the aerial assault was anything but. QB Casey Dick was a mediocre 11 for 20 for 108 yards, and didn't complete a pass to a wide receiver until halfway through the third quarter. (Heisman frontrunner Darren McFadden made the pass of the night too: a 42 yard TD strike to WR Crosby Tuck off his back foot in the 3rd quarter.) But the offensive line was strong in front all night long, allowing next to no pressure on its backfield, and you got the feeling like new Offensive Coordinator David Lee still has plenty of tricks up his sleeve. Defensively, it was also a hit and miss opener. In the first half, primarily playing zone, Arkansas got shredded by Troy QB Omar Haugabook. There was next to little pass rush on top of that, and the Hogs' 'D' looked like it could become a major concern for its fans. (What's with the secondary never turning to look at the football?) Up only 23-17 at the halftime break, a switch to man coverage in the 2nd half seemed to stabilize everything a bit, and Arkansas rolled on from there for the twenty point win. Defensive Coordinator Reggie Herring's defenses usually improve as the seasons go on, but the question of who will replace Jamaal Anderson's 13.5 sacks from a year ago remains unanswered. |
Special teams, however, were a major plus. Freshman placekicker Alex Tejada was an impressive 4 of 4 on field goal attempts, even though the longest was just 35 yards. A missed extra point in the second half aside, Tejada should be a major boon to the offense this year, especially when you consider that Arkansas made a grand total of six field goals all of last year! And as far as kickoff returns go, what can you say? Jones broke a 90 yard return to the house in the first half, and it probably won't be the last time he does it this year. Hmmm, let's see: kick it to Jones or McFadden? Not a fun choice for any opposition.
The punt return tandem of Michael Smith and Reggie Fish failed to impress, but with a bye in week two, there's plenty of time for Houston Nutt's Razorbacks to retool before a crossroads game at Sabanation and Alabama on September 15th.
-JAB
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