Review: Kid Cudi- Speedin' Bullet 2 Heaven

For long time readers of this blog, you would know that one of the first albums I reviewed was Kid Cudi's Satellite Flight. I was more or less ambivalent to it, as I thought that there was not a ton of rapping, and that the ambient electronics got a little tedious, though my opinion of it has gotten better over time. I mention this because a lot of people seem to be freaking out about how this album is not rap, even though Mescudi described this as punk or rock, and he has been moving away from rap for some time. I don't dislike this album because it's not hip hop; I dislike this album because it's one of the worst projects I've heard all year.

Satellite Flight did not prepare me for how bad this was going to be. For all my complaints about the synths on that project, there are none to be found here, and I would much rather take those than the poorly recorded and even more poorly performed guitars. I heard talks of analog tape being used here, but just because that's being used, doesn't mean it's good. You're taking an artist from the Pro Tools age and committing music to tape; he has nowhere to hide, especially on a recording as primitive sounding as this. This makes Kurt Cobain boombox demos look like A Night At The Opera. And I haven't even gotten to the songs yet.

There are 26 tracks to this project; 18 normal tracks and 8 'demos', though all songs seem more like fragments to me. There will be a guitar chord progression which will be stretched out for the duration of the song (did I say song? I meant album; I'm pretty sure he knows just the one), and Cudi just does his characteristic moaning over it. The repetition of this formula can get exhausting, but luckily he breaks it up with absolutely excruciating Beavis and Butt-Head skits that are littered throughout. I never liked Beavis and Butt-Head, but they're even more unwelcome here, as they mutter on sometimes for a seemingly endless amount of the album.

I've seen reviews praising Cudi for his experimentation and unique approach. As for experimenting, this is generic to the point of tears, besides that it's terrible, and being unique just means nobody thought to release something this poorly constructed before. I've seen Montage of Heck comparisons, and I'll agree; to a point. I'd rather listen to Kurt fart around on the guitar with Frances Bean crying in the background than be subjected to another opus length project by the band that never should have made it out of their parent's garage. If Kid Cudi releases another project (which after the reception this one is getting, may be iffy) it had better try a lot harder than this. MOTM3 or GTFO.

Out of a total of five stars, I give this:

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