REVIEW: KiD CuDi – Man on The Moon: The End of Day

kid cudi man on the moon: end of day album review

Review: 3.1/5

Best Songs: “Soundtrack 2 My Life”, “Sky Might Fall”, “Day n Nite”, “Enter Galactic”, “CuDi Zone”, “Up Up & Away”

I know I’m really late on this review but I honestly don’t know what to make of this album. Since I got it in early September, I pretty much stopped listening to it by mid-month and have decided now to give it a second chance. My initial thoughts is that I do like Cudi “being different” and the production is pretty cool with its new-age-electro-edge, but that’s pretty much it. Three problems I have with this album and perhaps Kid Cudi as an artist is that if he’s just being different “to be different” or “because it’s cool”, it’s just not real to me. The second issue is that I can’t relate to being an “artsy fag” that wasn’t good at sports. The image of Cudi as the emo-nerd comes of as trivial as well considering there’s artist with more substantive problems. Thirdly, while his melodies when he sings are catchy, his rapsy voiced rapping sounds uninspired and depressing. Anyway, let’s get into the breakdown.

1. In My Dreams (Produced by Emile)
The second Cudi goes “yeah”. I cringe. Could rap get any gayer? Worst intro of all time. Common’s voice over work is a little over the top as well.

2. Soundtrack 2 My Life (Produced by Emile)
Kid Cudi channels early Yeezy for this owed to all that is wrong with Cudi. I really like the hook on here, no matter how depressing it is.

Best line: “I got 99 problems and they all bitches”.

3. Simple As… (Produced by Plain Pat)
A track that starts of with an English guy singing “A,B,C, 1,2,3” has to be good right? Nope.

4. Solo Dolo (Produced by Emile)
Everyone spends a Friday night alone, I guess this is the theme song to that experience.

5. Heart of a Lion (Produced by (Produced by Free School)
You get an amazing uptempo beat and on the hook talk about having the heart of a lion yet you rap like you just got that emo haircut with the bangs hanging down to your nose. I like the “No, No, No” singing but I can’t listen to this without coming out of the closet.

6. My World (Produced by Plain Pat)
Are you kidding me? Again, I can’t relate to having no one to hang out with and I’m not knocking him (actually I am)…but this is what I’m talking about when I say Cudi’s problems seem trivial. And this emo-flow is killing me.

7. Day N Nite (Produced by Dot da Genius)
This song actually sounds out of place on the album because even though it’s about being a “loner stoner” it has this “careless cockyness” about it that every hip hop head can relate to.

8. Sky Might Fall (Produced by Kanye West)
Again Cudi comes through with that classic “careless cockyness”. I mean even though the sky is falling, Cudi isn’t worried at all. This is probably Cudi’s most interesting song ever.

9. Enter Gallactic (Produced by Matt Friedman)
Even though most of you thugs reading this will hate this song, I do enjoy listening to it while riding in the car with my girl. It sounds like something Andre 3000 would make.

10. Alive (Nitemare) (Produced by MGMT, Ratatat)
This reminds me of a light version of Micheal Jackson’s “Thriller”. And I can positively say I hate moog synth bass after listening to this. On another note, MGMT is a sick band, peep this song/video out if you haven’t, it’s called Electric Feel.

11. CuDi Zone (Produced by Emile)
Kid Cudi gets real busy over this Polow the Don sounding production, if this isn’t the next single, I’ll be mad (or after listening to a Cudi album “sad”).

12. Make Her Say featuring Kanye West and Common (Produced by Kanye West)
I guess emo’s do get girls afterall? Not feeling this too much. But Kanye’s verse is great.

Best line: Kanye West “Hold up born in ’88? How old is that? Old enough”.

13. Pursuit of Happyness featuring MGMT and Ratatat (Produced by Ratatat)
Another song where Cudi’s triviality rears its ugly head. Why do you want to be happy Cudi? And more importantly why should the audience care? Even if the guitar solo at the end is awesome.

14. Hyyerr featuring Chip tha Ripper (Produced by Crada)
I think this song is just to prove that Cudi knows someone named “Chip tha Ripper”.

15. Up Up & Away (Produced by Free School)
My favorite song on the album is also the last. This song could do some serious damage on Billboard with a video of Kid Cudi flying a kit through San Francisco with colorful hot air ballons flying over a lush landscape.

The Last Word
I can’t say I’m mad Cudi’s in the game, as we’ve needed a change from these generic thugs but I think its going to take some getting used to. I do look forward to seeing how Kid Cudi grows as an artist, however, I hope is flow gets better. Even though this isn’t a great album, I think Cudi could be a great songwriter for other artists. What say you?

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