Different. To describe Kid Cudi’s newest album, “Indicud,” this would be the best word to use. “Indicud” is not just an album, it is an immersive experience. There is an actual listening approach to the latest psychedelic creation from Scott Mescudi.
It is my strong belief that it is always a good thing to listen to a new album at least five times before passing judgment on it, especially if it is a very different album from those past by the artist. It is admitted that when first listening to “Indicud,” there is a fear that we have lost the Cudi that we have come to know and love. Listen a few times though.
In Kid Cudi’s past two albums, “Man On the Moon: End of Day” and “Man On the Moon Vol. II: The Legend of Mr. Rager,” he gives us a completely unique sound that can’t be contained in one or even two genres. There is just an incredible flow and feel to the music that is zoned-out but energetic at the same time. The easiest way to get a feel for it is to listen to it.
“Indicud,” however, takes a drastically different approach. In contrast to the more melodic and diverse sounding addictive sound that completely draws you in to the beat and the deep lyrics, “Indicud” takes a more far-out approach.
The new album takes us into a haze, a journey into the extra-terrestrial world that the Man On the Moon lives in. In the past two albums, we take a journey with Cudi along his path that includes his melancholy experience with highs and lows that are often masked by the mind-altering stupor his thoughts and imagination bring him.
“Indicud” is different in the way that this time, we are following Kid Cudi in his mind that has now mastered the world of the last two albums and is ready to advance to even more distinct areas of space and sound. We move from music that we can play walking or on the porch on a sunny day that talks about journeys in this world and escapes into dreams from something different.
We move to a place that is now being explored, a new space that Cudi is trying out and aiming to master. There are heavy waves of deep sound that create this psychedelic feeling we get when traveling through the trip that we take along with Cudi. This is an experience that we have to really listen to for us to appreciate its depth. Not just passively.
“King Wizard” and “Just What I Am” are two songs on the new album that really let you realize that you are still listening to the same old Mr. Rager but just in a different phase of his musical journey. However, songs like “Immortal” and “Red Eye” really drive home the fact that Cudi is moving forward into new and different places.
It is incredibly difficult to describe a sound. It is even more difficult to describe how one far-out Cudi sound is different from another more original sound that was unique in the first place.
The best way to put it is that his past two albums were a way of listening to a great, powerful and discernible beat, with lyrics that made us feel like we were working together to conquer the world and move to a good, musical place. There were both good and bad moods that we could walk along to the beat with.
In “Indicud,” we are past this powerful and moving place. We are there at the end of our path in this world and are ready to move to the outer world we dreamed about in our original pursuit of happiness.
“Indicud” is an album that you must really listen to. The easiest way to feel what is described here is to listen to the album, but this will help to show the change that Cudi has undergone in his music. He moved from a journey in an ambitious haze to a journey of deep space.
Leave a Reply