Kid Cudi - INSANO (NITRO MEGA) ALBUM REVIEW

I am crazy hi everyone why what Tano here the internet's busiest music nerd and it's time for a review of this new kid cuty album insano Nitro Mega psycho Ultra glycerin yes this is a brand new LP from rapper singer songwriter Hummer extraordinaire Mr kid Cy his second full length LP this year in fact because if you were paying attention he dropped uh yeah that new one in Seno just this past January and even though I've had a while to digest it I got to say uh kid Cy with that record did not give us a whole lot to chew over as in my opinion it was one of his weaker records as it really sounded like the man was kind of at a loss as to uh uh what to write about at this point in his life plus he didn't really embark on any new or exciting Sonic excursions on this record either which is odd because if cu's proven anything over the past 10 plus years of output and sometimes experiments with new sounds and genres even at the risk of pissing off and alienating parts of his audience but insano was just completely devoid of that and more or less felt like cudy was just kind of mindlessly riffing over a bunch of trippy trap beats drippy party jams which made it an even less substantive take on much of what he did on man on the moon 3 in 2020 which I presumed after that record he would kind of touch down on that sound that Travis Scott esque sound that he very much influenced create a big full circle moment with it and yeah it was a very well executed album all around but dipping into that well once again with insano I think yielded some stale results especially since again cuy didn't really deliver the intergalactic Sonics or uh The Moody introspective Vibes that he's known for too for sure a lot of inso is certainly listenable but for me on that record cu's core appeal more or less dissipated and wasn't really replaced with anything else per se now another thing to note about the insano era is that it's proving to be a very prolific one for cudy as he notified fans before the release of the album that there would be some kind of uh deluxe edition of the record extras because apparently there was just a lot of material to share now would this arrive in the form of a bunch of bonus tracks on the back end uh Deluxe addition of the record with a ton of tracks on the front end neither apparently uh what we're getting is instead an entirely different album of songs not just insano but insano Nitro Mega insano Nitro Mega it's giving Saturday morning cartoons in the80s which is not entirely a bad thing but uh uh having listened to the record now I'm a little split on it honestly I will say the biggest Pro about this album is that the tracklist unlike the regular insano it doesn't see cdy uh one-dimensional and unadventurous there are quite a few switch-ups stylistically and emotionally across the track list here I would actually say there are a lot of songs where cuud is going back to a more classic sound specifically on tracks like ill what I bleed all my life win or lose as well as the uh Intergalactic closer uh that features a very fitting instrumental from Benny X and on these songs cuy is delivering those familiar Spacey passionate soaring lead vocals that are engaged they're emotive they're also backed up with that trademark humming so we're getting old cuy aesthetically on this track list but also literally too as at least a few tracks on this thing are labeled as being from over 10 years ago and again in the abstract this is by no means a bad thing because these tracks bring Vibes that showcase cu's strengths more but there's still a roughness to a lot of these tracks there's a surface level lack of quality quity to them that makes it kind of apparent that uh they were not fully ready for launch take the track moonman ship for example uh a song that at its core I like but the mix is a little flat and muddy the choruses don't uh quite pop cu's Grim vocal refrains and the Twisted cord progressions are really nice but there's something about the sound of this track that is maybe a little lowf kind of Half Baked so it's not quite at that level of Sonic Immersion that we remember from Man on the Moon one two or three but again torn because songwriting wise it's sticking with me more than some of the more Mindless and generic cuts off of insano but uh not every song on this record even the throwback ones are bangers for example there's the very awkwardly sung written and executed storytelling on the 2011 song Rocket there's the song Willis to which is one of several Cuts here featuring a longtime collaborator chip the Ripper and this is the weakest of the chip tracks by far it's slow it's Meandering the pace is awful and the trap beat is uh janky it is very skeletal it's thin Plus on top of this instrumental Cy is bringing some of the most uh odd inflections of his career Ray Charles High out of his skull comes to mind there's also dose of dopeness which is labeled as a 2007 track and features this interesting combination of a Fel or Neptune's type Groove some emo esque vocal inflections and sad Indie piano Loops while I don't love the song it's cool to see cu's influences come together in such a primordial way here so yeah there's a lot of tracks on this record that don't uh quite come across as being camera ready and kind of makes U Nitro Mega here feel less like a sister album less like a sequel and more like a compilation what also adds to this sense is a 2.0 version of the song Electro wave baby which is essentially the same insano track but now we get like a pumped up EDM version of it and while I do appreciate this track for bringing more like structure to the song it happens at the risk of it now sounding tacky with again like these very dated EDM Vibes in addition to this there are numerous tracks that kind of sound like insano leftovers just as substanceless aimless and average but now a little rougher around the edges so they don't even have the privilege of uh being as Lush or as immersive as some of the best insano tracks were I'm thinking human-made or crash test cuy meanwhile a stellar feature tracks like the push a te crossover or the little yachty crossover were just mysteriously left off the original insano meanwhile how did that happen but the terrible XXX tentasion glorified remix landed on the track list there are a few other highlights of note but they're more the exception than the rule here like win or lose which is another track featuring chip the Ripper also has a very creative Incorporated to pesh mode sample and overall I think the record has a pretty strong one two three ending with I just want to get which features verses from lazy bone as well as Crazy Bone it's a laid-back entrancing piece of Southern hip hop with those classic Bone Thugs flows overall that is just the mixed bag that is insano and yeah again while there are some tracks on here where cudy is really throwing it back to an older sound from a decade ago where he you know sounds like he's at his best he is in his bag a lot of these moments are a little rough clearly not as well groomed as many of the studio tracks he's released over the past 10 years lackluster production lackluster vocal performances but in a sense at least some of it is a smidge bit better than a lot of what was on the original insano which sure was Lush at points sure was colorful but lacked a lot of lyrical initiative as well as a that emotional punch you usually get from cu's best stuff so overall I'm feeling a light five on this one tryan have you given this album a listen did you love it did you hate it what would you rate it you're the best you're the best what should I review next hit the like if you like Please Subscribe and please don't cry hit the Bell as well over here next to my head it's another video you can check out hit that up or the link to subscribe to the channel Anthony fantana kid Cy forever

Channel: theneedledrop

Views: 132,228

Keywords: album, review, music, reviews, indie, new, lyrics, listen, track, concert, live, update, the needle drop, anthony fantano, vlog, talk, discussion, music nerd, song

Id: X2ZXT4nwWuU

Length: 8min 17sec (497 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 27 2024