The Graduate (MC Lars album)

Last updated

The Graduate
The Graduatemclars.jpg
Studio album by
MC Lars
ReleasedMarch 21, 2006 (2006-03-21)
Studio
  • Sapone Productions (Long Island)
  • RMS Studios (Manhattan)
  • Bowl Noodle North (San Francisco)
  • Truck Studios (Oxford)
  • One Good Tem Studios (Los Angeles)
  • Battery Studios (Manhattan)
Genre
Length41:11
Label
Producer
MC Lars chronology
Radio Pet Fencing
(2003)		The Graduate
(2006)		The Digital Gangster LP
(2008)
Singles from The Graduate
  1. "Signing Emo"
    Released: 2005
  2. "Download This Song"
    Released: 2006
  3. "Ahab"
    Released: 2006

The Graduate is the fourth full-length studio album by American musician MC Lars. It was released on March 21, 2006 through Horris/Nettwerk Records. Production was mostly handled by Mike Sapone, as well as Christopher Rojas, Ill Bill, Oli Horton, Q-Unique, Steve Dawson and The Rondo Brothers. It features guest appearances from A Scholar And A Physician, Ill Bill, Jaret Reddick, MC Chris, Piney Gir and The Matches.

Contents

The album spawned three singles: "Signing Emo", "Download This Song" and "Ahab". "Download This Song" made it to number 29 on the Australian singles chart.

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svgStar empty.svg [1]
Alternative Press 3/5 [2]
Now Noto Color- N.svgNoto Color- N.svgBlue square N.PNGBlue square N.PNGBlue square N.PNG [3]
PopMatters 3/10 [4]
Spin B+ [5]

Alyssa Rashbaum of Spin found Lars' lyrics and cultural observations "both absurdly comical and strangely astute", concluding that: "[W]ith intelligent rhymes about why downloading rocks, Nickelback sucks, and youth is kind, Lars may be preaching to the choir, but at least he has a pulpit to stand behind." [5] AllMusic writer Bret Love was positive towards Lars' wide array of "clever pop culture references" but critiqued that the album's production mostly consisted of "generic laptop DJ stuff", concluding that: "While The Graduate may not be pumping in Jeeps on urban city streets anytime soon (read: ever), it's not difficult to imagine it providing the bong-hit soundtrack for the nation's university dorm rooms." [1] Eddie Fleisher of Alternative Press cautioned readers to not take Lars overly serious for his "hopelessly nerdy quality" and "mixture of satire and pop-culture commentary" throughout the album, saying "it's not the best rap record of all time, but what's refreshing is that it was never intended to be." [2] Tim Perlich of Now wrote that: "The Graduate seems less like the wiseass commentary of a pissed-off bedroom recorder than the contrived gags of a major label flunky with access to market research on iPod buyers. For a comedy album, it's not that funny, but Nettwerk's laughing all the way to the bank." [3] PopMatters writer Dan Raper said: "In his preoccupation with sending up genres such as emo or crunk, his reliance on too-famous samples that hijack Lars' own creativity, and his simple, simplistic delivery, he has failed to create a cohesive or compelling album." [4]

Track listing

No.TitleWriter(s)Producer(s)Length
1."Download This Song" (featuring Jaret Reddick)
 Mike Sapone 3:44
2."The Roommate from Hell" (featuring MC Chris)
 Christopher Rojas 3:18
3."21 Concepts"NielsenSapone2:49
4."Hot Topic Is Not Punk Rock" (featuring The Matches)Nielsen The Rondo Brothers 2:15
5."Rapgirl"NielsenSapone3:03
6."Generic Crunk Rap"
  • Nielsen
  • McCombs
Sapone3:02
7."Ahab"
Sapone3:21
8."iGeneration"
  • Nielsen
  • Damondrick Maurion Jack
  • Piebald
Mike Sapone2:53
9."If I Had a Time Machine, That Would Be Fresh"NielsenRob Seals (co.)1:03
10."Internet Relationships (Are Not Real Relationships)" (featuring Piney Gir)
A Scholar And A Physician3:24
11."Space Game"
  • Nielsen
  • Moob Arby
  • Sapone
Sapone4:05
12."The Dialogue" (featuring Ill Bill)
2:53
13."Six Degrees of Kurt Cobain"
  • Nielsen
  • Sapone
Sapone1:44
14."Signing Emo"
  • Nielsen
  • Sapone
  • Thomas Gates
  • Thomas Penzone
Sapone3:37
Total length:41:11

Notes [6]

Sample credits [6]

Personnel

Credits adapted from the album's booklet. [6]

References

  1. 1 2 Love, Bret. "The Graduate - MC Lars". AllMusic. Archived from the original on September 26, 2012. Retrieved August 2, 2024.
  2. 1 2 Fleisher, Eddie (May 24, 2006). "MC Lars". Alternative Press . Archived from the original on February 18, 2024. Retrieved August 2, 2024.
  3. 1 2 Perlich, Tim (April 20, 2006). "Discs | MC LARS The Graduate (Horris/Sony BMG)". NOW Magazine . Vol. 25, no. 34. Archived from the original on May 12, 2006. Retrieved May 12, 2006.
  4. 1 2 Raper, Dan (March 21, 2006). "MC Lars: The Graduate". PopMatters . Archived from the original on August 2, 2024. Retrieved August 2, 2024.
  5. 1 2 Rashbaum, Alyssa (March 31, 2006). "MC Lars The Graduate (Nettwerk)". Spin . Archived from the original on May 17, 2006. Retrieved May 17, 2006.
  6. 1 2 3 The Graduate (booklet). MC Lars. Horris. Nettwerk. 2006. 0 6700 30476 2 3.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.