Sunday, May 5, 2013

"Kid Cudi - Indicud" Review by Dom



Kid Cudi tries his hand at self-producing an album in its entirety. Indicud is Cudi's third album, fourth if you count his rock album under the name WZRD. The album is pretty ambitious, Cudi has always been ambitious but this album is a level higher. Some spots it definitely works well, and in some it falls short by a mile.

Firstly, the production is good, not amazing. He really missed some production from GOOD Music leader Kanye West on this project along with the arsenal of producer the label has. Overall the production is just good, it doesn't stand out much, for better or worse.

Negative: Let's get the bad out of the way first. As I said earlier, this is an ambitious album, I mean ambitious to the point where Cudi pulls Michael Bolton out of the woodwork for a 9-minute long track. Now I can handle 9 minutes of Cudi, but Bolton did not belong on this track, it was just weird and did not belong at all. There are also 3 instrumental tracks on here which, knowing Cudi they'd at least be interesting and they all are. "The Resurrection of Scott Mescudi" opens the album out pretty wonderfully with an eerie ambiance leading into a great industrial style beat. Unfortunately "New York City Rage Fest" and "Flight of the Moon Man" don't follow suit and fail to hold any interest. "Unfuckwittable" and "Cold Blooded" are laughably corny and not very good songs.

Positive: Now that that's out of the way, let's get to the good. "Just What I Am" was the first single and it was a warm welcome back into the Kid Cudi we all know and love, with an infectious hook and great beat, you can't go wrong with it; the same goes for the other singles, "Immortal" and "King Wizard". Possibly the most anticipated track on this album was the sequel to "Solo Dolo" from Man on the Moon: The End of Day which features Kendrick Lamar and the track does not disappoint one bit. The weirdest feature on the album is definitely Michael Bolton, but the weirdest feature that worked came from a band named Haim. They're a soft rock band consisting of 3 sisters. They're featured on the track "Red Eye" which oddly enough doesn't feature prominent vocals from Cudi until almost 3 minutes into the track and for some reason I love it. It's smack in the middle of the album so it fits as a nice break from Cudi's vocals and the girls' voices are beautiful, definitely a stand out track. "Lord of the Sad and Lonely" sees Cudi getting back into his depressed mind reminiscing of songs like "Trapped in My Mind" and "Soundtrack 2 My Life". The track "Beez" is an interesting one as it sees Cudi again taking a backseat on vocals and letting RZA of Wu-Tang and solo fame take over. I've heard a lot of people not like this track but I just don't see it, it's one of the better produced tracks, RZA tears the beat up like no one's business and Cudi's vocals compliment the track so well.

Overall: An ambitious album from an ambitious artist, I call him an artist cause it almost sounds insulting to say that Cudi is just a rapper. The production isn't top notch, lyrics on some tracks are below par, even for Cudi. The features (with the exception of Michael Bolton) all do a fantastic job. I forgot to mention how good the track "Brothers" with A$AP Rocky and King Chip is, seriously check that out. And Kid Cudi sounds just as good as ever. While this album is easily the worst of his first 3, it's not because the album is bad, it's because he set the bar so high with Man on the Moon: The End of Day and Man on the Moon II: The Legend of Mr. Rager.

Rating: 7.5/10

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