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The one overly consistent element, unfortunately, is Cudi's voice. His unhurried nasal flow is highly recognizable, but doesn't quite convey the sly wit of precursors like Slick Rick and Snoop Dogg. He's best when he lets the fog lift on more extroverted cuts like the funny "Make Her Say" and "Enter Galactic." Let's hope Kid Cudi finds a few more ladies to take into space on his next journey; they seem to help him get beyond his habits and hang-ups.NY Daily News
For the most part, the pace drags, though we do get a few perkier stretches, including "Make Her Say," which samples Lady Gaga's "Poker Face" in a way that offers more burpy fun than the original. Still, those few peaks of animation can't make up for the dire landscape of the rest. Worse, for an album whose whole point is to channel the wild imagination of the unconscious, Cudi's shows precious little of it.
The music is engrossing and Cudi's angst genuine (he mourns his dead father), but his raps get pedestrian ("Gray clouds up above, man/Metaphor to my life, man"). And asserting ad nauseam that he is a "lonely stoner" is just annoying — a hipster boast masquerading as a confession.
The premise is that Kid Cudi’s not on the same planet as other rappers. The truth is that he’s not in the same genre. “Man on the Moon: The End of Day,’’ his long-awaited debut album, is a lot of things. It’s spacey, adventurous, and ridiculously intriguing if only because it’s so different.
But it’s not rap. And that’s not a bad thing. Following Andre 3000’s “The Love Below’’ and Kanye West’s “808s & Heartbreak’’ in a subset of experimental and emotional hip-hop, “Man on the Moon’’ might be the most fully-formed of them all. What he lacks in pure rapping ability Cudi more than makes up for with infectious melodies and powerful hooks. It’s more Fall Out Boy than Fabolous.
Using as a skeleton his 2008 mix-tape, “A Kid Named Cudi,’’ which spawned the megahit “Day N Nite,’’ Cudi fleshes out that sound perfectly through rich production by Emile, Plain Pat, MGMT, and Ratatat. The concept of splitting the album into five acts and 15 scenes comes together without getting in the way of the music. Woozy wrist-slitters like “Solo, Dolo (Nightmare)’’ are chased by the bouncy liveliness of “Enter Galactic (Love Connection Part I),’’ and it’s easy to follow along as the emotions ebb and flow.
