Passion, Pain & Demon Slayin' - REVIEW

How far can a person fall from grace before they are deemed irredeemable? It doesn’t seem to matter much for one of the most interesting artists in contemporary hip-hop, Scott Mescudi, otherwise known as Kid Cudi. It’s been about a year since his rather experimental rock-like album that was met with a considerable amount of disdain and disappointment across the board. I couldn’t even finish it myself. I was very put off with whatever Scott was trying to go for in Speedin’ Bullet 2 Heaven.

But things are different now. Kid Cudi came through with one of the very last major releases of 2016. Passion, Pain & Demon Slayin’ is Cudi’s most earnest and surprisingly satisfying album in a long time. I had been quite acquainted with Kid Cudi since 2011. His first two albums were wonderful testaments that hip-hop can mix well with space-rock and trip-hop textures and still be catchy enough for anyone to remember the melody and lyrics. While themes of astronomy and personal suffering carried swiftly in his first few albums, I was saddened with the lack luster streak that had bestowed upon Cudi since 2014. It’s now more obvious than ever that the old Kid Cudi is back, and he’s trying to make up for lost time.

The disheartening thing about the present state of affairs now is that Kid Cudi may be falling ever so shortly of his previous vigor. While Passion certainly holds several moments of pure Cudi creativity, it’s quite apparent that this new album feels more like Kid Cudi attempting to bring back his glory days than trying to create new material and delve into new territory. But I completely understand why he’s doing this: he’s tried too hard to create a new anthology of sound that just never took off with critics or even the closest of fans. It’s like how Dan Brown never changed his formula for every single Robert Langdon novel he wrote. He stuck with an overdone formula because he knows it works. Scott Mescudi is now trying desperately to cultivate the formula that once worked so well for him in the past.

While it could be debated for hours as to whether an artist should try to be on top of the world again after they have already reached their prime, I personally will give Scott a pass this time. After a streak of embarrassing events like being publically disavowed by former music mentor Kanye West during one of West’s concerts and Cudi admitting himself to a rehabilitation center for depression and suicidal thoughts, Scott Mescudi needed a light at the end of the tunnel, and Passion, Pain & Demon Slayin’ is that light. However, despite the noble or even admirable attitude Kid Cudi brought when he released this album, this does not excuse him from hard criticism of the music itself. Context is always important, but musicianship is paramount.

Kid Cudi’s new album, while trying to be the new Man on the Moon but not at the same time, is ridiculously repetitive. It’s not that Kid Cudi’s music hasn’t been built on repetitive melodies and song structures since he started releasing music, the problem is that these new melodies are kind of boring, to say the least. What also doesn’t help is that the album is way too long; clocking in at about an hour and 27 minutes, and most of this is because every song is drawn out like there’s no tomorrow. Within each song, no matter how good it may be, is just the same beat, melody and bass line; over and over again. Every song is two or three minutes longer than it needs to be. All this in mind, Kid Cudi actually committed a common music sin: having his album be severely frontloaded. The best songs on the album are the first three songs, but at least they're filled to the brim with classic Cudi melodies and beats that will give the impression that he’s performing these songs in the dark, in some type of desperation, like a cry for help. The third song, “Releaser”, is honestly the most impressive thing Kid Cudi has put out in years. Even though it’s cursed with the repetitive nature of the album, the melody itself and the keyboard riff softly playing in the background is grimly haunting. The beat is slow and heavy, dragging on like the weight that Kid Cudi must have been feeling like he’s been carrying for the better half of 2016. It’s accompanied perfectly with former model Kacy Hill, singing ominously “I think I’m on the verge of breaking” and providing evocative opera-like vocals.

At this point, I believe it’s safe to say that the fat middle part of the album is actually very boring and practically unnecessary. You could cut out about half of the songs on the album and it would be significantly better to listen to, not to mention less time consuming. Similar to Frank Ocean’s Blonde, the brilliance of the album stems from the introductory and concluding tracks. The album closer, “Surfin’”, is an incredibly catchy get up track, and I suppose it’s meant to represent that despite all the pain that Cudi has been through lately, he sees the future  looking very bright, if not fun to experience.

While the old Kid Cudi may be back, it doesn’t seem like he’s been fully awakened just yet. Maybe the next album will blow my mind like how Man on the Moon II did when I was a junior in highschool. Either way, anything is better than another Speedin’ Bullet 2 Heaven.

Overall: 7.0 out of 10