Kid Cudi has had a noteworthy albeit not uncommon career arc. Beginning with the immeasurable buzz created off his mixtape work, most notably A Kid Named Cudi, his immense talent, unique sound and the elite company he kept had fans clamoring for music. For Cudster, the sky has always seemed like too low a limit.
Both his debut Man on the Moon: The End of Day and sophomore effort Man on the Moon II: The Legend of Mr. Rager delivered on the massive hype that preceded them. After that exceptional breakout success, Cudi seemed to lose touch with his sound while dealing with his own inner demons, a significant part of his musical oeuvre, and on again off again dependence on marijuana for creativity.
The next couple of releases, Indicud, and Satellite Flight: The Journey to Mother Moon left fans and critics wanting more, as the depths and diversity of Scott Mescudi’s sound seemed to go so far array as to even leave the artist himself lost.
Speedin’ Bullet 2 Heaven represents a seminal moment for Cudi, with four straight albums that have sold less progressively, and been a mixed bag critically, he seems to be grappling with the typical plagues that come along with freshman success. When your earliest work is your best, where can you go from there?
One thing that is very clear on this album is that the fusion of Hip Hop, jazz, rock and R&B that were previously present are less prevalent. This is a rock album in nearly every sense of the word. From instrumentation to lyrical delivery, it sounds more likely to come from the Red Hot Chili Peppers than the artist behind the Man on the Moon series.
The earliest indication of this comes before one even presses play. A cover that could easily have been on a Big Brother and The Holding Company album features a sound more reminiscent of turn of the century rock and roll than those early psychedelic days.
Not until the sixth track “Adventures” do we hear a bass that could represent some sort of Hip Hop presence, but it quickly softens up and gives way to a trippy falsetto singing over a slow moving guitar and bass basic beat.
This is how much of the album continues for 26 tracks. The altered voice of Cudi croons in an alien tone over varied mediums to high-quality instrumentals. A scant amount of the music is truly beautiful, such as the acoustic guitar on “Handle with Care,” but many of them come off as repetitive and better suited for a singer and a voice more typical to the genre.
On a sonic level, much of this album is strong but the identity and continuity are lackluster. The album seems made by someone unable to find the lightning in a bottle that was so impressive and entrancing on his first two LPs. Furthermore, much of the album seems disjointed with nothing but Beavis and Butthead interludes tying together the tracks.
For many artists or rock groups this would show pieces of strong artistry, but for the man behind two of the best albums of the last decade, it seems like yet another identity crisis on wax in which the talent is still clearly there but the overall work when consumed as one entity is lost in the weeds.
This may be the result of an artist who finds himself troubled at the moment. Lyrics like, “I might go loose and jump off a cliff” on “CONFUSED!” don’t make much of an effort to mask this reality. As an artist who has created some generational anthems, we all want to see Cudi regain his sound and confidence. As fellow humans, we hope that whatever demons are being grappled with on this double disc can be beaten.
No one will debate the musical talent of Kid Cudi, but if he is going to continue to try and stretch the boundaries of his sound he will have to be methodical with the experimentation.
it doesn’t sound shit like the red hot chili peppers. That is a bad comparison. but this album, knowing that it is a rock album is garbage
there is not a single song on this entire thing that i like. i’ve never experienced that before. right from beginning to end, this is a massive waste of time.
I LIKE REAL MUSIC WITH SUBSTANCE AND THIS ALBUM WAS TERRIBLE
Atrociously painful listen. Awful album. 0/10 for me.
this shit is pure trash! fuck kid cudi!
wow, the hell happened to cudi? indicud was the last decent project he put out. i’m all for experimenting, only if the final product sounds good. he needs to get back on that man of the moon shit.
fucking garbage. unlistenable garbage.
and I’m a HUGE Cudi fan. MOTM is one of the greatest albums of our time. This may be one of the worst. I can’t even recall the last time I had to skip EVERY song on an album. So sad…
Lmfao @ “MOTM is one of the greatest albums of our time.” Who’s time? Maybe for all of you Hot Topic kids who hang out at the mall 4 days a week. Certainly not mine! He maybe has 3 or 4 decent records in his entire catalog and that is it. Has no vocal range and plays the guitar at a 2nd grade level. Swing and a miss
This isn’t even music? Sounds like a llama giving birth! Change your name to Kid Cut-The-Shit! Time to hang it up. Weed Plate of the Year
This should just be an ep. The 5 or 6 good tracks are classic Cudi imo. None of his projects yield no filler albums.
Sounds like some shit some emo 15 year old made in Garageband after the school bully duffed his ass for not handin over the lunch money.
This albums ahead of it’s time. Possessed by the ghost of Kurt Cobain. You needa fire your reviewer and hire a hipster
– Nobody EVER
LMAO!!!! You said Seattle…Shit had me rolling.
Exactly. this sounds like he recorded it in Seattle
Indicud was a HUGE disappointment after his previous offerings. I think I listened to Satellite ONCE. I won’t be fooled a third time and buy this album until I hear it thoroughly on the net. Despite the criticism, I do hope it grows on me…
this song is dope dont know about the rest of the album though since i havent heard it (but I will be purchasing it). this sounds like 90s grunge rock (listen to Nirvana and you’ll get it, this is kurt cobain influenced kids). Nirvana and nine inch nails mixed. you have to like rock if your going to continue to be a kid cudi fan. I seen him going in this direction along time ago.
you think we don’t get that? he did go rock with the wzrd album but even i didn’t fuck with that. i get the influence but i’d rather listen to the actual 90s grunge bands than this. they mastered that sound, this sounds like a fan’s bad imitation of it. to each his own, though.
This guy feel way off a looong time ago to me he’s been shit for a while now he’s not hip hop not sure why he’s even on this site. He’s garbage he’s one of the worst “rapper” I guess/artist ever. Straight garbage. He had 2 good albums and one decent mixtape thats it.
Fuck you
Kid Cudi is wack lmao: WZRD (2012),
Indicud (2013),
Satellite Flight: The Journey to Mother Moon (2014),
Speedin’ Bullet 2 Heaven (2015)
Remember when he dropped this song this year? https://soundcloud.com/cudderland/love
I thought he’d come out with an album that sounded like that…I was wrong
Obviously this isn’t hiphop. And obviously no one who wants a hip hop record is going to be happy with this. But I find this record brilliant.
This is terrible. I am from Cleveland and also love grunge and indie rock so I am literally rooting for Cudi in every sense but this is horrendous. This is basically like Jordan trying to play baseball. Clearly cudi isn’t feeling hip hop music anymore or doesn’t want to go in that direction, but he doesn’t have the talent or experience both vocally and musically to pull off a suitable album for garage/alt/punk whatever he is going for. I’m done holding out for anothe man on the moon that guy looks long gone
Its honestly not bad……not a 4, but no means a 1 or 2….so yeah. KID CUDI 4 Life