Indicud is the first album of Kid Cudi’s solo career to not be included in his ‘Man on the Moon’ series, and it’s pretty golden. The album opens with ‘The Resurrecton of Scott Mescudi’, with a beat that sounds like it could open a Resident Evil movie, but in a good way. This fixes a pretty good foundation for at least the first half of the album, a slightly ominous tone being set by the mixture of menacing beats over refracting background tones, leading into ‘Unfuckwittable’ with a quote from The Good Son’s sociopathic child played by Macaulay Culkin (the first of many such quotes). Continuing on the eery path that was set by the opening track, ‘Unfuckwittable’ has a slow, unsettling beat, and Kid Cudi’s traditionally meandering voice and monotone rapping adds to that. This kind of vibe will probably be what turns a lot of people off this album early on, but it works, and the songs slot right into one another.
The album really gets going by ‘Young Lady’ feat. Father John Misty, with a bit more of a rock vibe coming through, and this is followed by a couple of the album’s best tracks, ‘King Wizard’ and ‘Immortal’. I’m not altogether sure what swag is, but it seems like Kid Cudi probably has it, or is at least very good at pretending that he does.
Before the album was released it was announced that Indicud was going to be a double-disc album, and while this statement was later withdrawn, the album still sounds like it has two very separate halves. After the first eight tracks, everything seems to blur together a little too much, and I found myself losing interest, with this second half of the album just serving as background noise, not particularly bad background noise, just a bit samey. After what I think was a very strong start this was a bit of a disappointment.
Either way, the album has some pretty great tracks on it, and while I’m not in love with the second half of the album, I’ve found myself listening to the first half quite a few times since I got it. The eery opening really got me, and Kid Cudi’s laidback style and cocky lyrics have had me bopping my head along to the music on the train into the city every day. So in my mind the whole album still scores pretty high, even if the last half didn’t hold my attention. Hopefully the next album will be a solid win from start to finish.
7/10
Reviewer: Louisa Bulley
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQQ0yucXEws