Review: Kid Cudi - Man on the Moon: The End of Day

Man on the Moon is a hauntingly beautiful album that is everything 808s and Heartbreak should have been and more.

By David Sutherland for SarcasticDBag.Blogspot.com

Kid Cudi has pulled off a rare feat in hip-hop music: a humorless concept album that isn't about selling drugs. Instead, Cudi has crafted a dark and brutally honest look at the trials and tribulations of his young life and the end result is a genre-busting label defying near-classic that makes his boss's 808s and Heartbreak sound like an unpolished demo. It's just as whiny though.

An album with a plot...

Follow the yellow brick road. Follow the yellow brick road.

For fuck's sake Cudi, follow the yellow brick road!

Man on the Moon starts with a surreal melodic trip through Kid Cudi's unconscious that concludes with some plot establishing narration from his GOOD Music label-mate Common. Common sets the tone for the album and pulls no punches in developing the record's theme: reality is a system imposed on humanity. Defying and escaping this system is divine and by following your dreams you are traveling down the path to freedom. However, there will be trouble on the way, but in Cudi's case, trouble comes in the form of an existential crisis instead of say, 9 gunshot wounds.

Thanks Morpheus.

Genuine emo, or a satirical critique of a genre?

Thankfully, the album quickly shifts from metaphysical dream interpretation to deep emotional introspection, but that shouldn't scare you off. "I got 99 problems and they all bitches," Cudi quips at the start of the album's second track and firmly asserts that he is not built like Jay-Z, but he's a humble Cleveland boy who controls his own life. The song, like much of the album, is so unapologetically emo that you wonder if he's being satirical or serious.

Cudi's emotional journey continues and he confronts the issues of loneliness, drugs, haters, and love in a very melodic and very unconventional way. The closest thing to an R&B song on the album comes in the form of "Enter Galactic (Love Connection Part 1)" an ode to mushroom enhanced courtship where Cudi does a great impression of Pharrell crooning on psilocybin.

Man on the Moon reaches it's peak with the Timbaland sounding "Cudi Zone" which is hip-hop at it's most epic in the literal sense of the word. In this song, Cudi belts out a beautiful chorus that sounds like Chris Martin from Coldplay without the annoying falsetto.

The album's second single "Make Her Say" seems out of place both thematically and sonically but it's saved by Kanye West's crisp production and witty punchlines. It's hard to make a blowjob anthem fit in perfectly on an album about self-reflection and the unbearable pressure of existence, but Cudi pulls it off flawlessly.

Cudi ends his debut with the Houston inspired weed anthem "Hyyerr" and "Up Up & Away" which is an incredibly upbeat and catchy guitar driven pop tune with a chorus that makes you want to go out and hug kittens in a field of cotton candy.

The ease in which "Up Up & Away" enters your ears makes you wonder how effortless it would've been for Cudi to have taken the safe route into the land of radio friendly pop tunes. It's a good thing that he didn't however, because Cleveland's finest clearly has a lot to say and thanks to his adept choice of production he's found the perfect way to say it.

Strong Points:

- "Cudi Zone", "Pursuit of Happiness" and "Simple As" are the standout tracks on an album full of standouts.

- The production is absolutely phenomenal.

- Cudi's blurring of the line between rapper and singer is a welcome addition to a genre where T-Pain currently holds the crown for being the best "rappa ternt sanga".

Notable Blemishes:

- Sometimes Cudi's heart on his sleeve act could use a healthy dose of subtlety, unless this blatant emotional content is some sort of meta-critique of the genre of hip-hop he's been pushed into. The bottom line though: who gives a fuck, the album is dope.

Speakers or Headphones:

Headphones.

This isn't really the kind of record that lends itself to blunt cruisin'.

Final Verdict:

8.5/10

Kid Cudi has seized the torch from hip-hop's vanguard and his first album turned out to be much more Andre 3000 than "hipster-hop". Thank god for that.