Hi, everyone. AHHHHHH AHHHHHH AHHHHHH here, the Internet's busiest music nerd, and it's time for a review of the new self-titled project from Kanye West and Kid Cudi, Kids See Ghosts.
Thus far, it has been a very busy summer for producer, songwriter, singer, rapper — you know who he is — Kanye West, releasing several mini-albums within weeks of one another. The first of which, while not under his own name, did feature his influence and production from front-to-back. Of course, I am talking about Pusha-T's DAYTONA, a seven track album that just breached 20 minutes in length, All killer, no filler. Then, following that, was Kanye West's new album Ye. Also 7 tracks, also just over 20 minutes, equally to-the-point, though not as aggressive and finely tuned as DAYTONA. Ye was also noticeably less extravagant and wildly experimental than Kanye's past several albums, too. But, to me, this album still struck me as an incredibly unique and important moment for Ye in just how vulnerable and harrowing the material on
this album is. To me, this record felt like Kanye going through an ego withdrawal and showing the suicidal and
self-destructive lows that fuel his god-complex highs. Which brings me to the third installment of Kanye-related releases this summer, Kids See Ghosts.
I had an inkling that this album wouldn't sound too much unlike the "Ghost Town" track off of Ye's latest album because it features Kid Cudi, Kids See Ghosts, Ghost Town, and there's also a song on this record titled "Freeee (Ghost Town, Pt. 2)," so there's clearly some kind of linkage going on here.
So, I kind of got to wondering, will Kids See Ghosts be aesthetically similar to that "Ghost Town" track? Will we see a similar fusion of hip-hop and guitar music? Maybe even hip-hop and rock, not too much unlike Kid Cudi's WZRD project, which — I don't know — worries me because I didn't like that album too much. Also, I was so skeptical going into this thing because a lot of Kid Cudi's solo material has been painfully mediocre since Man on the Moon II. And, even though I've enjoyed Ye's recent releases he's in such a state of volatility right now. Who knows if he can keep this quality up. Also didn't Kid Cudi and Kanye, like, have a bit of a rocky friendship-thing lately? That could affect this project, too. So, I did have reasons to be skeptical going into this album, but... This record is amazing.
It's just as brief as everything else Ye has touched so far this year, at 23 minutes and seven tracks, but it flows fantastically in its short run time, feeling like a full, complete album — to the point where Kids See Ghosts actually feels longer than it is. It also sounds completely unlike anything Kanye has dropped so far this year, really dropped ever. And sure, while — as I predicted — there are elements of hip-hop and rock being fused on this thing, there's so much more. There are experimental hip-hop elements being worked into this thing, clearly some Madlib worship here-and-there in the grunginess and the brevity of some of these instrumentals and songs. There's even a neo-psychedelia edge on this album, too. I catch whiffs of some Flaming Lips here-and-there, some Yoshimi, Soft Bulletin, Embryonic, and even The Terror. ...Some shots of hard rock and pop and R&B and even grunge get worked into this thing, too. Occasionally, on this record there are some flashes of classic Kanye, but there are plenty of moments here, too, where he is as "out there" as ever, especially with some of the eclectic sample choices, one of which is a 1930s Christmas song, another one being a Kurt Cobain sample.
Typically on this thing, Kanye comes off really manic, wild, out of control. Cudi [comes off as] being really forlorn, dejected. It's sort of like they're both taking the emotional and... And mental problems that they are known for in
their music, putting out there in their music, and sort of forming them like Voltron together into this short-but-epic experimental hip-hop opus. And, in a huge contrast from Kanye's Ye record, the production on this thing, the verses, nearly everything is so meticulously assembled. Like, the rawness, the lo-fi production, the... The feeling of lightning in a bottle, the feeling that things on the record were just kind of cobbled together: that does not carry over onto Kids See Ghosts at all. I definitely get the sense that the songs on this thing were worked on for a very long time. The music and the emotions on this thing are on "the edge" in every way imaginable. For me, this thing was mind-blowing on impact and instantaneously catchy.
We have the opening track on here, "Feel the Love," featuring Pusha T. Push drops a really expressive and flashy intro verse over these very somber synth chords right after these distorted vocal leads from Kid Cudi being echoed out into oblivion.
[Echoey singing:]
"I can still feel the love!"
It's a really powerful refrain, powerful mantra, to kick the record off with. Not only that, but Cudi singing this loud,
this forcefully, and also this on pitch right at the start of the record is... Is a very good sign.
So far, the song sounds pretty cool, pretty low-key, pretty trippy, strange, surely. It's a great vibe, but I just did not see coming right around the corner, at the end of this verse, Kanye busting in and kind of simultaneously locking in with these gunshot snares that are marching away into the end of the song. And, over these, snares he's just going:
"Grrrat, grat-grat-grat!
Grat, grrrat!"
...Sounding like Mike Patton while the song builds up this sonic and rhythmic momentum. The track suddenly melts into these dreary bass tones and guitar leads that — miraculously — Kid Cudi's vocal lead still fits on top of. Even though this track is really short, we've gone through the number of compositional transitions that you'd usually hear in a song double its length. The song just ends in such a powerful place thanks to the performance, the production, really everything. The color, the volume, the texture: it's all on high.
"Fire" is a much more low-key moment on the record, the shortest song at 2 minutes and 20 seconds. It shows Kanye and Cudi doing their thing over these very gnarly and rough, chunky and twangy guitar samples. Some eerie woodwind leads, too. Some psychedelic vocal samples and sound effects. It doesn't hit as high at sonic-peak as some of the other songs on here, but I do feel like — lyrically — these are important moments for Kanye and Cudi, as it seems like they're kind of establishing the personality, the vibe, the brand of of this collaborative
project. I also think this track works really well as a depressive counterpoint to the intro cut. There's also a marching quality to the percussion on this track, to the persistent snare drums and tambourines.
[Mock-drum sound:]
"Ba-ba-ba.
Ba-ba-ba."
Pair that with the guitar sample and Cuddy's haunting humming hanging in the background, and the song essentially sounds to me like a pirate dirge... But in the best way possible, in the best way possible. There's also something about Kanye's verse on this track that just reminds me of 2000s-era Kanye. It's kind of like he's been resurrected but has a newer, darker edge.
The song "4th Dimension," though, struck me as the most classic-Kanye moment on the entire record. This
song features the kind of genius-level beat production that reminds me of cuts like "Jesus Walks." Kanye drops this hilariously explicit verse, of course it's about sex. I love the line in this verse, when she tells him he's in the wrong hole, and he says he's lost. That, uh, definitely got to me. But also I love how Kanye sort of portrays sex as like this psychedelic experience, talking about it as if it's like another dimension. That I can definitely fuck with, and the the line that he ends his verse with, saying that — if he goes to jail — he won't finish the sent— ...And then the rest of the verse is just silence.
[Mock-explosion sound:]
"Bweh!"
Then Cuddy's verse: this dude has not sounded this cold-blooded since the 2000s, and I just love the camaraderie that is coming through on this album between these guys already before we've even hit the halfway point. It's like Kanye and Kid Cudi are bringing the best out of one another on this record reminding, one another of what each other's strengths are... Because we know Kanye and Cudi are longtime admirers of each other's work, have inspired one another's work, and it's like together, in closed quarters, on this record they each want to do whatever it is that makes one artist hold the other in such a high regard — because Cudi's singing on this thing is more on-point than it's been in years. Like, he's so on pitch, it's scary, sometimes. I think the shakiest vocal moment for him on this thing is some of the moaning at the start of the track "Reborn," but it's not
even really that bad. But, back to "4th Dimension;" Cudi's bars on this thing are really slick, really trippy. And I love the hilarious vocals snippet that sort of ends the song out, talking about: "You know, just have the music do this and that and the other thing, and then you know just two and a half minutes, that's enough for a record."
The song "Freeee" is one of my favorites on here. I mean, almost every song on this thing is a favorite of mine. It's this crazy, hard-rock/rap fusion that's just...
[Mock-explosion sound:]
"Kweh-kweh-kweh!"
Kanye and Cuddy go absolutely insane on this thing. The track is a fantastic extension of some of the themes off the track "Ghost Town," throwing out this idea of freedom again and again and again. And not just simply social or political freedom, really a[n] existential freedom. Freedom from pain, freedom from like mortality. The song features these blaring samples of chopped up hard-rock guitars; it sounds like something out of a Led Zeppelin song. A lot of the instrumental though is ode to a very generous sample from a UK instrumental hip-hop producer who goes by the name of Mr Chop. But, even knowing that, what Cudi, Kanye, and Ty Dolla $ign to do on top of this beat is incredible. Their gargantuan, godlike proclamations of:
"I. Feel. Freeee!"
[Mock-explosion sound:]
("Kweh!")
Every single time Kanye and Cudi shout that line, I feel like I'm being thrown down into a kaleidoscopic wormhole, where all these colors are swirling around my brain. Ty Dolla $ign brings these amazing vocal harmonies like these super dense, super thick — how many vocals are multi-tracked on top of each other? It sounds so... Ahhh! Even though Ty Dolla $ign isn't delivering as extreme a vocal performance as Kanye or Cudi, he sounds rock and roll as fuck. Again, Kanye sounds absolutely manic on this track. Kid Cudi, less so, but there's a bit of sass to some of what he delivers on the track.
"Guess what babe!"
This song is not simply just a fantastic song by itself. It's also redemption, for me, too. Like, it's a fantastic follow-up to "Ghost Town." It also sounds like what WZRD should have been. And the the the godlike vibe of
this track, the supernatural vibe of this track, feels like something Yeezus should have achieved.
"Reborn" is an amazing and forlorn cool down after this cut. Cudi singing truly makes the track, and I love the song's lyrical themes of moving forward and having no stress, getting a clean slate, beginning anew, the need to
hit the reset button once again. Kanye drops a fantastic verse on this cut that is one of his most personal yet. Kind of echoing this very sentiment the haunting background vocals and cue piano and dusty beat may not sound like much just listing them out, but they do a whole lot with very little. The refrain Cudi ends with on this track I
think adds a very powerful sentiment to the song, questioning which way should he go after either fucking up or going through this reborn process — where maybe he's bound to make the same mistakes again.
Then, there is the incredibly chilling title track, which features the most meditative instrumental on the entire record. More supernatural vibes coming off of this track, a really eerie synth lead, a spectral chord progression. Yasiin Bey, a.k.a. Mos Def also featuring on this thing on the back end in a very wise and... And Sage-like short verse. Kanye's verse is so great on this thin. He comes through with so much authority.
And the finishing "Cudi Montage" just ends things off with fireworks. The strung out guitar that... That basically makes up the bulk of the instrumental here, which is a Kurt Cobain sample. It's kind of like Cudi is taking those grunge vibes that he was trying to execute on Speedin' Bullet 2 Heaven but giving them the... The song, the platform they finally deserve. Also, I love the way the track transitions from these dirty, grimy, lowdown verses to these heavenly vocal harmonies, with Cudi singing out into the ether — with a lot of reverb on his voice. "Whoa whoa!" ...Then all these incredibly eerie auto-tune vocal harmonies shoot back.
"Stay strong!
Lord, shine a light on me. Save me, please."
Damn, the vocal melodies they put together on this track is just incredible. Kanye's verse is fantastic on this thing, too, displaying this cycle of violence. Like, really one of his most conscious sets of bars in years. This whole idea of asking or begging to be saved by this supernatural power, for a record like this, to me is a pretty powerful sentiment to end on. I also love some of the psychedelics synths that go into this track , again enhancing that
neo-psychedelic edge.
And just, what a fantastic collection of tracks. And I don't necessarily see this album as just simply being a standalone thing. I very much see this record and Ye to be connected, somehow... Making it difficult
for me personally to look at this and say, "Oh, you know, it's just seven tracks. It's just twenty minutes of music." No, I mean, in the grander scheme of things I feel like this album is very much tied to Ye's recent release but the track listing on this thing is so freakin' watertight, there's not a song on this that I don't love to some
degree or I don't think adds to the tracklisting fantastically. Every song builds on the next to create this overwhelming, mind-altering, and strangely beautiful vibe. I truly feel like Kanye and Cudi put one another artistically to the test on this thing with an amazing mix of emotion, sound, and genres — all of which are super vivid, just crashing into one another in this violently beautiful display. It's like the cosmos imploding and reality melting and the The Matrix glitching. And I'm also super impressed with how forward-thinking, difficult to pin down, and futuristic this album feels, too.
I am legit feelin' a strong 9 to a 10 on this thing.
Uh, what do you... What do you think of that?
[Cal Chuchesta:]
[Snoring]
Hey! [Clap.] Hey! [Clap.] What do you... What do you... Is this... Is this exciting to you? Is this... Does this interest you at all?
[Cal Chuchesta:]
"Ehh..."
[Rolls over.]
Well, I like it. I like it a lot. Tran—
—Sition 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. Just leave a comment in the comments if you're feeling full of thoughts. Over here, next to my head, is another video that you can check out. Hit that up — or the link to subscribe to the channel.
Anthony Fantano
Kids See Ghosts
Forever!
