Released: 12 April 2013
Genre: Hip Hop, Alternative Hip Hop
Fav Tracks: Lord Of The Sad And Lonely, Just What I Am, Immortal, Solo Dolo Part II, The Resurrection Of Scott Mescudi, Beez, Brothers, Young Lady, King Wizard, Cold Blooded
Least Fav Tracks: Girls, Afterwards (Bring Yo Friends)
Review: If you don't know the history of Kid Cudi refer to the 'Man On The Moon' review we did earlier. I really love Cudi but I'm not sure if i love this album.
The first track 'The Resurrection of Scott Mescudi' is a very cinematic introduction to the album. It's a very unique and enjoyable song. The next track 'Unfuckwittable' has some really questionable vocals, and a really simple beat. However i do like the synths and sounds that are painted throughout this song and throughout this album as a whole. The next track 'Just What I Am' has a really nice intro with some twisted synths and 'King Chip' talking about his relationship with god. I didn't mind the large robot voice on the chorus. I really liked King Chips' verse but Kid Cudi's verse, although being introspective, had a messy flow. However I still thoroughly enjoyed this track. The next song 'Young Lady' has a really nice instrumental but Cudi's lyrics are ridiculous. He rhymes 'Afar' with 'Star' twice in the same song... right beside each other. The vocals are also way lower in volume than the booming instrumental. It ends up making the song sound messy. I still really love the instrumental as it changes the 'Father John Misty' sample a lot.
What I noticed in this album is that the production on these songs are WAY simpler and weaker than the ones on his two previous albums. It's like some kid learning to make beats for the first time in his life. He really needs to bring back 'Ratatat' and the rest.
The next song 'King Wizard' has a nice song topic and Cudi has a really nice flow on the song but the instrumental feels lacking. The instrumental just feels so bare bones, but I really like the chorus. The song was great up until the end when the robot sounds started to come in. I don't know why, but they did. The song is still overall fun to listen to. 'Immortal' has one of the best instrumentals on the album and Cudi's vocals on this song are the best on the album. The lyrics of the songs are very unique for the album. This song is basically a more powerful version of 'Alive' on the first Man On The Moon. 'Solo Dolo Part II' which is a sequel to the first 'Solo Dolo' has a really nice instrumental and some funny lyrics. This song features 'Kendrick Lamar' who has a great flow on this track. However I don't think this is better than the first 'Solo Dolo', but it does have a sample that's mixed in the same way as the first Solo Dolo. 'Girls' has a terrible hook in which he just repeats "So many coulours and sizes, so many different surprises". The songs instrumental is SUPER weak with lazy 80's sounding synths and Cudi sounding more childish (and creepier) than ever. Tate gave up after this song. Seriously Cudi unintentionally sounds like a stalker on this track. I actually like the instrumental no matter how cheesy it is but these lyrics are so weak. 'Too $hort' is also on this song. His verse was somehow worse than Cudi's. This is definetely my least favourite track on the album.
So far what i think about this album is that if you originally liked Cudi you will keep seeing new angles of his albums. This album isn't like his first two albums which I loved, it's so much more experimental, so I guess if you didn't like Cudi at first you might hate this.
'New York City Rage Fest' is an instrumental track. It's just a pretty boring instrumental. 'Red Eye' with the band 'Haim' has some very pop sounding production because of the synths that were used with some lyrics talking about stuff that Cudi talked about better in other songs. This track is okay. 'Mad Solar' has some bad production but some good lyrics. The production sounds really annoying and lazy. The song could have been a great song if it had better production. 'Beez' with 'Wu-Tang Clan' legend 'RZA' has some okay production and some amazing lyrics from RZA.
'Brothers' with King Chip and 'A$AP Rocky' has some nice production with some lyrics about their relationships with their close friends. 'Burn Baby Burn' has some questionable production with some lyrics that go from being good to just really weird, but not weird in a good way. This song is pretty hit or miss for me. 'Lord Of The Sad And Lonely' is a really good song to continue on with the vibe of Man On The Moon I and II. The cheap sounding production works on this track. The lyrics for this track are inciteful and interesting. This song is like a really awesome army anthem sound or something. Cudi also has a really nice flow on this track. 'Cold Blooded' is a song with some really nice production and some lyrics that tell us slightly more about Cudi as a person. On this song Cudi brings his best flow on the album.
'Afterwards (Bring Yo Friends)' is a nine minute long borefest. The song has some good singing by 'Michael Bolton' and some okay rapping from King Chip but the repitition in this song just ruins it. Bolton repeats 'bring your friends' so many times that It just becomes painful. After five minutes this song just becomes soul suckingly bad. However I enjoyed the production at the second side of the track. 'The Flight Of The Moon Man' just isn't as good as the intro track.
This album was pretty hit or miss. Some tracks were really great, some tracks weren't and other tracks just didn't need to be on the album. Girls, Afterwards (Bring Yo Friends) and New York City Rage Fest DEFINETELY needed to be removed. There are song really good tracks aswell. The poor production is also a problem as it just sounds lazy and cheap and destroys the path that his first two albums layed out. In fact everything in this album destroyed that path. Hopefully 'MOTM III' won't do that. There's also a wide and confusing variety of features such as Michael Bolton and Father John Misty. This albums main problem is its production. Cudi should stop self-producing his own tracks because everything just feels boring with the lazy and cheap production. Nearly all of these songs have some really good synths that feel cinematic and atmospheric. However these synths are wasted by being used lazily. Cudi should mix the synths he used for two different songs and use them for one song. The dongs with the least amount of synths and sounds end up sounding weak and bare bones. He would have a great and short album on his hands if he did that. This album is still worth a listen, but be cautious.
Rating: 6/10
No comments:
Post a Comment