This is Kid Cudi’s follow up to his first album, “Man on the Moon: The End of Day” and the second installment of Man on the Moon trilogy set to culminate with the release of Man on the Moon III this fall. I’d go into deeper explanation of his background but you probably already know about it and if you don’t, go to Wikipedia. They run a pretty tight operation.

Kid Cudi was an artist that an ex-girlfriend of mine had pushed on me that I rejected for a while because I listened to his songs and, since he was presented to me as a rapper, focused strictly on his rapping abilities, which are fine for his style but aren’t up to par with a Jay-Z or a Mos Def for example. Then I heard “Enter Galactic,” which I absolutely loved and decided to give him a listen. I went and listened to the original Man on the Moon and really dug it. It’s extremely cohesive while still letting the individual songs maintain their identity and I just loved a lot of the tracks on it. I’ll most likely go further into this on a later review so I’ll hold off from going too in-depth. The next logical step for me after that album(quite a few re-listens along the way) obviously was to listen to Man on the Moon II, which is how I got here. 

Right off the bat, you notice that this album’s lyrical content is extremely drug-centric. For god’s sake, there’s a song that’s literally called “Marijuana” that is conveniently four minutes and 20 seconds (4:20) long. However, while his debut album celebrated how drugs affected his mind, Kid Cudi reflects upon the darker side of drugs in this one. The album is aptly titled “The Legend of Mr. Rager” because Mr. Rager is Scott Mescudi’s alter ego for when he gets drunk/high and/or does cocaine. This is a very dark album centered around his addictions and his inability to cope with them. His cocaine addiction almost killed him, in fact, and is the explanation behind why he’s so damn skinny. 

While I like how open and introspective Cudi is with his lyrics, this album provides almost no variety whatsoever in that aspect. Almost every single song is about how he wants to stop doing drugs despite the way they make him feel to no avail. In fact, the only lyrical diversity seems to be between what substance he’s discussing his addiction for. I will give him credit though, for presenting different aspects of the addiction and coming up with some creative ways to present it. For example, the lead single, “Erase Me,” uses an allegory to present it. On the surface, the lyrics give it the appearance of a basic song about a relationship between a man and a woman which gave it commercial appeal and allowed for it to be released as a single, however the true meaning is easier understood within the context of the album. The woman sung about in the song is Scott Mescudi, while the person actually singing the song is the first person perspective of cocaine. The chorus, “She said, ‘I keep on running, keep on running and nothing works, I can’t get away from you, no. I keep on ducking, keep on ducking and nothing helps, I can’t stop missin’ you” and lines such as “I know she hates me deep down, I know she does, She wants to erase me,” which reflect upon Cudi’s desire to eliminate the drug from his life help support the allegorical claim.

While there’s no variety in the subject matter of the songs on this album, Man on the Moon II DOES provide a relatively wide variety of styles and genres for the songs. Hip-hop, alternative rock, electronic all with layers of psychedelic pop sprinkled on top. As far as this album reaches out, every song save for the alt-rock anthem “Erase Me” still has that distinct Kid Cudi sound that we’ve come to know and love. 

The production on this album is very good, just as it was on his first album, and continues to be a strength of Cudi’s music. All of the features were very good as well for the most part. Cee-Lo Green’s hook on “Scott Mescudi vs The World” (I see what you did there Kid Cudi) is excellent, while Mary J Blige makes two nice appearances, and the St Vincent sample on “MANIAC” definitely made that track. The verses spit by Chip tha Ripper, GLC, and Kanye were all solid, if unspectacular. They didn’t help the album any, but didn’t really detract either. The production was good, but I really think Kid Cudi missed having Kanye West as the executive producer as he was on the first album. I think if West played a similar role to the one he played on the first album, we might be looking at one of the better albums to come out in a while as we did with Man on the Moon: The End of the Day.

The entire album is very lyrically connected, but it just doesn’t feel very cohesive as a unit. Outside of the opening and closing songs, which do their jobs decently, it just feels like a collection of songs all thrown together on a record, which can be attributed partially to the variety of genres on the album. 

At the end of the day, this album has plenty of good songs (Mojo So Dope, Erase Me, Scott Mescudi vs. The World), though none that I would really call great, but it also has plenty of filler (We Aite, All Along, Wild’n Cuz I’m Young), which is its main downfall. I think Kid Cudi was very ambitious when creating this album, trying to incorporate a lot of different genres but the overall product ended up being good, but nothing spectacular. I’m still very excited for Kid Cudi’s future though, with his rock project, WZRD, releasing their debut LP this month and Man on the Moon III slated for release this fall in addition to him being featured on the upcoming GOOD Music album. I’ll give Man on the Moon II: The Legend of Mr. Rager a 3/5. 

iloveretro:

Soundgarden - Black Hole Sun

I know that feel. 

I’m the unusual Kanye West fan in that this was actually the first album I’d actually sat down and listened to. I shunned all hip-hop until the very end of my junior year of high school(I’m a freshman in college now to give some context) and even when I did begin to embrace hip-hop as a legitimate musical genre, I only viewed early 90’s “Golden Era” artists as having any merit. Yeah, I had a stick shoved up my ass.

The album starts off with Nicki Minaj testing out her British accent to narrate the intro…huh? That’s what you’re thinking right now. It makes no sense. *But it works* That’s really a microcosm of the whole album. Kanye takes people/samples/etc that shouldn’t fit at all and somehow makes it sound great. Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon as a hype man? Yep. King Crimson in popular music? Why not. We shouldn’t be shocked by this though. Kanye has proven to be one of the greatest song creators, if you will, in the history of hip-hop and music in general because of his ability to utilize resources in such a creative and efficient manner. Roughly 90 artists and producers were credited on this album, but My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is almost strictly Kanye’s creation. 

I love the title of this album. Maybe more than any other album title, it suits the proceeding content. This album is Kanye West in a nutshell. He’s a musical genius, he’s also a douchebag, he’s a “Chi-town nigga with a Nas flow” and he’s totally self-aware of all this, which allows him to make this record. After Nicki Minaj’s intro and the barrage of “Can we get much higher? So highhhhh, OH OH OHHHHH, OH OH OH OHHHHH“‘s, West comes in and delivers the first line “I fantasized about this back in Chicago” which sets the table for this album of self-description perfectly.

After “Dark Fantasy” gets things started, “Gorgeous” presents a somber outlook on Kanye’s career. The mood is set by a slow beat backed by a little guitar riff while Kanye uses autotune to humanize himself(this is an odd-sounding concept, but one West has mastered). The hook, sung by West protégé Kid Cudi, highlights the fact that this album is, at least in his eyes, West’s last chance to re-enter musical relevance particularly the line, “No more chances if you blow this, you bogus, I will never ever let you live this down.” This is succeeded by “Power,” which on the surface appears to be Kanye doing what he does best, or at least is perceived to do best: talk about how great he is. However, further analysis reveals that this song is actually about the power struggle in West’s head between the desire to keep his childlike personality and the reality setting in that he has to be more mature due to his greater public stature. “Reality is catching up with me, Taking my inner child, I’m fightin’ for custody.” 

“All of the Lights” is arguably the gem of this album. If not the best song, the most acclaimed(nominated for a Grammy). The song features just about every person to be involved with music including, but not limited to: Rihanna, Elton John, Fergie, Drake, and I could keep going. The song starts out the guest vocalists all singing the hook before the beat comes in. The beat is easily one of the sickest beats ever created and makes the song worth listening to on its own. The only comparison that I can come up with is that it’s a jacked up version of the beat West created for the song, “Touch the Sky” on his 2nd studio album “Late Registration.” All of the Lights is an allegory for Kanye’s life post-Taylor Swift incident. The lyrics play out as a story about a man beating his girl, going to jail, then coming back and having his money sucked dry and no family. The “girl” he hits is the music community with his T-Swift incident resulting in his self-inflicted exile(going to jail). He comes back but is still far from the limelight for the first time since his first album was released. Throughout the song, he references “that Ghetto University,” a possible allusion to his first three albums as they all have school-related titles(The College Dropout, Late Registration, Graduation). He says he can’t let his children grow up in the aforementioned “Ghetto University,” insinuating that he’d like to be recognized for music outside of his first three albums.

“All of the Lights” is followed up by “Monster,” which is the purest “rap” song on the album. Outside of Bon Iver doing some singing/hyping throughout the song, it’s mostly just a beat with Kanye and his crew rapping over it. Simple by comparison to rest of this album of excess. All of the features on this song are fantastic, even Nicki Minaj, who I’m not usually a fan of, tore it up. 

While “All of the Lights” was the most acclaimed song on MBDTW, my favorite song on this album is “Runaway.” Starting off with a slow, brooding piano before a beat kicks in along with the chants of “Look at ya, look at ya, look at ya,” Runaway is Kanye stripping himself down to discuss his penchant for infidelity. The chorus, “Let’s have a toast for the douchebags, let’s have a tost for the assholes, let’s have a toast for the scumbags, everyone of them that I know…baby I got a plan, runaway as fast you can” begins as West urging women to stay away from him as he realizes that he’s a terrible person for the way he treats women. However, as the song goes on, Kanye and his associate Pusha T begin to justify this treatment of women by using the profession as an explanation. The chorus doesn’t change but takes on a new meaning after this has been established. “Let’s have a toast for the douchebags” goes from degrading his character to celebrating the celebrity lifestyle. By the end of the song, though, West realizes this player lifestyle may derail all of his real long-term relationships and actually gives his partners power instead of himself. “I guess you are at an advantage, ‘Cause you can blame me for everything, And I don’t know how I’ma manage, If one day you just up and leave.” 

“Lost in the World” samples Bon Iver’s “Woods” and puts an insanely sick beat behind it mixed with a little Kanye rapping behind it. This is one of the best sample uses that I’ve heard in my life. As a side note, this song has ruined “Woods” for me because now every time I hear it, I expect a big beat to come in but to no avail as the song remains slow and timid for 4 minutes, beautiful in its own way. This song actually inspired my friend Caroline and I to stop my car into a parking lot one night when we were driving and break out into a full on 2-person dance party(true story). 

I consider My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy to be the most well-produced album that I’ve heard. Every sample and every feature fits perfectly. This album is a culmination of everything that Kanye has done up to this point and really solidified his status as an all-time great artist in my opinion. It combines the introspective art pop of “808’s and Heartbreak” with the pop rap of “College Dropout” and “Late Registration” mixed with Kanye’s fantastic producing skills and few new twists to push his sound even more. Kanye  continues to be commercially successful while still being artistically relevant. Devil in a New Dress and Blame Game are good, not great which is why I can’t give My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy a perfect rating, but it’s damn close with a 4.5/5. 

This was an album that I had very little expectations for. I thought fun.’s first release, “Aim and Ignite” was largely mediocre outside of the song “All the Pretty Girls.” However, I was drawn to listen to this album as I’d heard the lead single, “We Are Young” and have always felt frontman Nate Ruess might have one more good album in him after “Dog Problems” with his previous band The Format. Immediately I noticed that this album is far more ambitious and experimental than anything Ruess has done with fun. or The Format. There is obvious Queen influence in this album, especially in terms of many of the vocals and harmonies incorporated. I also noted at least two instances where autotune was used. This seems to be a growing trend in modern indie music that can actually be rooted back to Kanye West’s 808’s and Heartbreak. The first 4 songs had me thinking this album might actually be pretty good. Some Nights was solid, and while I didn’t really like “We Are Young” as a single, I thought it fit in well in the context of the album. However, about halfway through “It Gets Better” is where the album starts to sour for me. It begins to just sound like fun. just isn’t capable of having an overly complex sound, even when it is rooted in pop. Too many things are happening at once that, on their own, are solid components, but just sound kind of jumbled as a whole and by the last song, “Stars,” I’m just ready for it to be over. The album that I’d compare “Some Nights” to is last year’s “Bon Iver, Bon Iver.” Both are sophomore efforts that keep the core of what the band’s sound is intact and then expands it to be more grandiose. However, while Bon Iver’s sound is rooted in emotionally provocative songwriting, fun.’s sound is rooted in generic indie pop and sophomoric lyrics. I give credit for the album being more experimental and it surpassed my expectations but it still only warrants a 2.5/5 rating. 

I won’t be able to review every album I’ve ever listened to. I’ve already reviewed/rated many albums on RateYourMusic.com so if you really like my music taste and wanna see what else I like, you can go to my RYM profile at this URL http://rateyourmusic.com/~TheReid

Haven’t used this thing in months. Not gonna be a personal blog or anything. Just gonna use it to do music reviews. You can read them or not. I don’t care.