I went into reviewing this album with a positive outlook. In high school, the albums Man on the Moon: The End of Day and Man on the Moon II: The Legend of Mr. Rager were popular amongst students. You could hear “Day ‘n’ Nite” or “Erase Me” blasting in the parking lot as students filed out of school.
On the contrary, it was extremely hard for me to listen to Speedin’ Bullet 2 Heaven. The album gets worse and worse as you continue to listen to it. This album is definitely one of the worst albums of 2015. Cudi is a 31-year-old grown man, yet his lyrics sound like a 16-year-old boy (who does not know much about lyrical composition) wrote them. The lyrics are boring, repetitive, and thoughtless. He uses every cliché possible and if something rhymes he throws it in there. Cudi continues to use his themes of darkness, the end, drugs, outer-space, and dreams in his redundant tone throughout the album. To me, it seems he stopped putting his heart into his music, his goal now may be to simply make money. He should have stopped making music in 2010 after Man on the Moon II: The Legend of Mr. Rager. Cudi repeats that he doesn’t know who he is yet, which clearly affects the music he makes. One track on the new album “CONFUSED!” describes him well. He switches from emo-punk-rock, mimicking Nirvana, to emo-psychedelia-hip-hop, mimicking Man on the Moon, throughout the album.
The reason I compare him to an angsty 16-year-old boy is because, throughout the album, he refers to hallucinogens to make himself sound “cool” and “trippy” with the help of Beavis and Butt-head. Cudi has a voice-over of Beavis and Butt-head on the track “Adventures” saying, “Take some of these mushrooms that Cudi gave us (sporadic chuckles). Come with me Beavis, to Burning Man.” Beavis and Butt-head also join Cudi in his many lo-fi, punk rock songs on the album. In the song “Man In The Night,” Beavis and Butt-head say, “Tonight, we bring you greatest album ever made in the history of man.” “Punk-rock music is not dead.” “Word to Kurt.” I think Kurt Cobain rolled over in his grave when that was written.
Cudi made this album too fast. He has made three albums in three consecutive years. To prove my point as to how terribly thoughtless his lyrics are, here’s a verse in the song “Adventures”: “Lost in my reflection, how do I chill? Only crazy makes sense, starting to make sense. Well I’m still. Her vagina is moist and warm. I’ll keep you safe just hold my arm. Hell is beyond the door. Heaven doesn’t want one more. No more chicken sandwiches. Yes, I’ll pay for the damages. I explore through the galaxy nightly. Love my body.” Cudi has lost his marbles.
I am beginning to think that the reason he was so popular before with the song “Pursuit of Happiness” is because MGMT and Ratatat knew what they were doing. Speedin’ Bullet 2 Heaven has no collaborations or features, as opposed to his past albums. Kid Cudi could’ve used a few collabs to give this album some substance.
Rating: ½ of a W
Key Track: “Edge Of The Earth/Post Mortem Boredom”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yoeai-SbB-E
