Album Review: Kid Cudi - Speedin' Bullet 2 Heaven
By Sam Tornow, Managing Editor
[Republic; 2015]
Rating: 1/5
Key Tracks: “Man In The Night,” “Judgmental C***”
Kid Cudi has been shooting for the moon since his breakthrough into the music industry over a decade ago. With each album he has been developing himself as the voice of lonely stoners everywhere--that is until his latest release, Speedin’ Bullet 2 Heaven. On his newest departure, Cudi has traded his signature futuristic hip-hop sound to play the role of a multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter, and a crummy one at that. Unfortunately, this album has not only missed the moon, it didn’t even make it off the ground.
The most apparent problem on the album is the poor instrumentation coupled with Cudi’s lazy vocals. Nearly every track is repetitive, not only within itself, but also sounds similar to all the other songs on the album. In many cases, songs blend together into a mess of chords and rudimentary drum beats. Some songs such as “Man In The Night” and “Judgmental C***” do offer slightly more variety, with interesting riffs coupled with punk drums, but these rare moments are swallowed up by a plethora of unlistenable tracks and are haunted by Cudi’s vocals. Throughout the entirety of the album, the vocals come off as careless and distasteful--often times, Cudi sounds as if he is sleep-talking into a microphone from miles away.
Slightly less noticeable but equally as painful is the production of Speedin’ Bullet 2 Heaven. With much more instrumentation than past albums, Kid Cudi uses an intense analog effort and a massive amount of distortion, which drowns a lot of details throughout the tracks. Instead of hitting the classic grungey cassette-based feel which a lot of artists strive for, the album sounds as if it were recorded in a basement by a group of middle-schoolers who are trying to send in a demo for their school’s talent show.
What cements Cudi’s album as one of the worst of the year, however, is its length. At a staggering hour and half, about a quarter of which is demos, the album drones on for far too long. By the halfway mark, it seems as if every poor vocal line, terrible analog effect and bland guitar riff has been explored multiple times.
Speedin’ Bullet 2 Heaven is undoubtedly a harsh listen, which should be avoided by even the most hardcore Cudi fans. If Kid Cudi is to be successful with this new sound, he is going to have to take a much different approach than this.
