IT appears Kanye West has never battled with the demons of low self esteem.

His pre-school teacher reported of a three-year-old West that he was brimming with confidence and had a rather large ego.

Some things never change I guess, because these days the hip-hop rapper and producer has cultivated a bit of a reputation for overbearing arrogance, which in a genre where artists have a penchant for comparing themselves to God, is fairly staggering.

And while it would give me utter delight to declare this album as "not all that", I'd quite simply be lying, because it is fantastic!

Addictive from the first listen, West has made production of that tricky second album look like child's play.

I'd go as far as saying that this album is better than 2004's College Dropout.

It's near-on impossible to pick stand-out tracks because they're all so frustratingly good.

I loved the soulful Heard 'Em Say, featuring Adam Levine from Maroon 5, and the uplifting Touch the Sky, which samples Curtis Mayfield's Move On Up.

Also fantastic is current single, Gold Digger, featuring Jamie Foxx sounding like Ray Charles from beyond the grave.

Yeah, West may well be hideously cocky, but when he's producing music this good, who cares?

This is easily one of the must-have albums of the year. Ignore it at your peril.

EB