Album Review: Kid Cudi – Indicud

When Kid Cudi announced back in the summer of 2012 that his new album was going to be his version of ‘The Chronic 2001’ I think many people didn’t take him seriously, to make such a bold comparison so early on is an example of his new found confidence, and whilst being perhaps not on the same level as Dr Dre’s album, it certainly pushes boundaries and is extremely creative. The mood of the album is in complete contrast to his previous albums ‘Man On The Moon’ and ‘Man On The Moon II’ where we traveled through Kid Cudi’s dark and twisted mind, which revealed his loneliness and pent up anger at the world. The atmosphere in this album is a much more positive one and as he explained via twitter this album is ‘the product of him riding through the bad times and now celebrating the good.’ In terms of sound the albums are comparable with Kid Cudi playing with his eery and haunting vocals over unusual synthesised hip-hop beats, using various samples from bands like MGMT and Gorrilaz. The big difference on this project is that he has taken full reins over everything, the production, beat making, design…EVERYTHING. Deciding against using his usual producer and friend ‘Dot Da Genius’ so that he could have full 100% input on the album. This works really well and even with the production not being completely crisp and with the beats being more simple, it creates an artsy and stylised effect, allowing the lyrics and vocals to stand out, best shown on the tracks ‘Unfuckwittable’, ‘ Solo Dolo, Pt II’ and ‘King Wizard.’