Kid Cudi is buzzing on college campuses. It is not because of his outing with fans to see “Star Wars.”
It’s all because he remained “100 true” to his “artistic self” on his new album Speedin’ Bullet 2 Heaven.
The new release by Kid Cudi is less Hip-Hop and more of a mash of up of several genres, including rap, EDM, soul and some Rock&Roll thrown in for good measure. It’s so not Hip-Hop that Apple finally re-categorized the release in the Alternative genre after Kid Cudi protested when it was labeled a Hip-Hop album.
It’s a new era for Kid Cudi, who ditches the synth sounds heard on his 2014 release Satellite Flight: The Journey To Mother Moon. This go round, Kid Cudi delivers a hard rock sound on the 26-track effort.
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Kid Cudi seems to be channeling a little Jimi Hendrix, Nirvana, Pearl Jam and a lot of the 90’s Grunge sound. The first two tracks, “Edge of the Earth/Post Mortem Bordem” and “Confused!” give the album some momentum.
“Effortless and surprising, the seemingly Frankenstein mashups of genres come alive with merits beyond the novelty of the odd combinations” – Josh Podolsky, Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts.
In fact, on Speedin’ Bullet 2 Heaven, the title track and the song “Adventures” are about the closest track to sounding anything like Hip-Hop, thanks to a drum loop. Even that features Cudi crooning over an electric guitar.
While Cudi’s lyricism has been the focus of critics, his lack of skill on the guitar will surely be subject to scorn.
The three-chord structure of most songs becomes monotonous about halfway through the album. Daniel Alcazar of The Daily Bruin agreed that Cudi’s strumming brought down the quality of the album.
“Kid Cudi is not good at playing the guitar. Most of the songs are composed with no more than simple chords. Of course, simplicity does not exclude skill, but these songs are simple because of Kid Cudi’s apparent lack of skill, not because he wanted them to be simple,” Alcazar said.
Speedin’ Bullet 2 Heaven is a decent effort although it is obvious Kid Cudi is still finding his groove. The album is sure to keep the budding rock star busy on the festival circuit this summer.
Let’s hope Kid Cudi works out his personal issues and resumes his canceled Especial tour to perform some of these bangers live.
