and his debut live album, Late Orchestration (2006). Since then, Late Registration has frequently appeared on top albums lists, including Rolling Stones "500 Greatest Albums of All Time", on which it ranked 117th in 2020. Background Late Registration is the second of Kanye West's planned four education-themed studio albums, following the major success of his 2004 debut The College Dropout. The album showcased his signature production style of using sped-up vocal samples from soul records, known as "chipmunk soul". However, because of its success, other hip hop artists widely imitated this sampling style. In response to this, and fearing his own dependence on the technique, West decided to find a new sound and progress in both songwriting and stylistic range. West enlisted film score composer and record producer Jon Brion for Late Registration, resulting in Brion serving as co-executive producer for several tracks. The rapper heard and liked Brion's score while watching the 2004 film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and also listened to songs he had produced for singer-songwriter Fiona Apple's second album When the Pawn... (1999). Apple was another one of West's favorite acts and sources of musical inspiration for Late Registration, whose direction West described as "that Coldplay, Portishead, Fiona Apple style". Portishead's 1994 album Dummy was another reference point for West's direction with the album. Brion was inexperienced in creating hip hop records when initially collaborating with West, yet the two were able to productively work together after only one afternoon in the studio when they discovered that neither confined his musical knowledge and vision to any specific genre. Discussing Late Registration differing in direction from standard hip hop, Brion said, "There are colors and ideas that make [the album] different from average hip-hop, but Kanye is already different from the average hip-hop guy. He's got this sense of pop record-making which is really solid, and he likes tracks with a lot of things going on in them – which is not necessarily common for hip-hop. He was already barking up that tree." Recording West spent two million USD to produce Late Registration, recording it in slightly over a year. The majority of the recording sessions for the album took place at Sony Music Studios in New York City and the Record Plant in Hollywood, California; further sessions were held at other Hollywood locations Chalice Recording Studios and Grandmaster Recording Studios. In June 2004, the