Review: KIDS SEE GHOSTS - KIDS SEE GHOSTS

Release Date: June 8th 2018
Label: GOOD Music, Def Jam
Album Link

     Hot on the heels of fan polarizing album ye, Kanye West returns with Cleveland born hip hop artist Kid Cudi, famous for 2009's Man on the Moon: The End of Day. Together they've debuted under the name KIDS SEE GHOSTS, dropping a self-titled album in the process. The collaboration between the two is nothing new of course; Kanye noticed Cudi back in 2008 at a Def Jam meeting, and has acted as Cudi's mentor ever since. The two worked together on Kanye's 808s & Heartbreak, an album that would shape the future of not only Kid Cudi, but other popular rappers today such as Drake, Frank Ocean, Childish Gambino, and B.o.B. West also served as executive producer on Man on the Moon: The End of Day, and Kid Cudi continued to work with Kanye on all of Kanye's future projects. The creation of this new group was announced back in April 2018, and production on this album started over following Kanye West's interview on TMZ. 

     Despite how poorly I felt about Kanye's recent efforts on ye, I was still reasonably excited to see how this project would turn out, due in part to Kid Cudi's involvement with the song "Ghost Town" from ye. What I wasn't expecting is just how much of a massive improvement KIDS SEE GHOSTS would be in comparison to ye. While this album is also still just as short as ye, sitting at 7 songs and 24 minutes long, it oddly doesn't feel short at all. This is largely because there's so much interesting stuff going on in this album, not just vocally, but in terms of production as well. The album is a dark and haunting as the group name implies, and it's clear that Kanye West has put much more effort into the production of KIDS SEE GHOSTS, as well as pushing new sounds that is typical of Kanye. This album is also the best Cudi has sounded since Man on the Moon: The End of Day.

     KIDS SEE GHOSTS kicks off strong, with the ghastly and hard hitting "Feel The Love". The ethereal feeling of the light synth haunts, as Kid Cudi's classic vocals echo, and feature Pusha T provides the only rap section of the song. Lyrically, Pusha T's lines aren't anything particularly out of the ordinary, but having features on a song to give it different textures in rap styles was something that I sorely missed from Kanye on ye. The breakdown following the rap section is some of the best abrasive work Kanye has done, with Yeezy providing intense gunshot ad-libs as distorted drums are added to the synth. There's a really good balance of suspense and attack on this song, that makes it a really strong opener for the album. The next track "Fire" immediately switches things up, with a twangy sort of gritty western, marching paced beat, with Kid Cudi providing his therapeutic hums across the track, and a few somber flutes scattered. One of the most mind blowing beats on the album though, has to be "4th Dimension". Leave it to Kanye West to take an old Christmas song like Louis Prima's (you may recognize his voice as King Louie from The Junglebook)  "What Will Santa Claus Say", and turn into a dark haunting beat. "Free (Ghost Town Pt. 2)" is maybe my least favorite track in terms of production, but I love Kid Cudi's vocals across this track, and you can't help but join him singing "I feel freeeeee". Of all the tracks, "Reborn" is the most Kanye and Kid Cudi sounding songs on KIDS SEE GHOSTS, which sounds like a perfection of 808s & Heartbreak and Man on the Moon: The End of Day. It is the longest track on the album, and by far the most beautiful hip hop song to come out this year. It's so refreshing to hear Kid Cudi sing properly, instead of his off key vocals he's been using recently. The title track of the album, "Kids See Ghosts", sounds exactly what you'd expect a ghost themed song to sound like. If "Feel The Love" is haunting, than this song is like being trapped in a section of Fatal Frame. You can literally hear the ghosts through out the song in the form of high pitched synth notes, echoing faintly in the background. The album closes with the uplifting, and grungy track, "Cudi Montage", which actually samples Kurt Cobain's "Burn the Rain".

     What's crazy about this album is I have a hard time finding anything negative about it. I'm never bored listening to it, and I don't feel particularly annoyed by any parts of the songs. Everything from the production, to the vocals is incredibly well done. If I'm being really critical, I could say that lyrically there's nothing incredibly special about the album, but lyrics are not necessarily the focus of the album, and don't detract from the experience too much as well. There are definitely some strong lines in rap sections of the songs ("All of you Mario, it's all a game" is a good example), but rap sections are limited and most songs are just the chorus. Also, although KIDS SEE GHOSTS doesn't feel as short as it does, it definitely could still have benefited by being longer at parts; "Fire" in particular could have had more done with it. Overall this is Kanye West and Kid Cudi at their strongest. I've said enough praise of Kanye's production, but I honestly can't begin to say enough praise about Kid Cudi's contribution. I'm really impressed with how great Kid Cudi sounds on this album, and if he continues like this I'm looking forward to hearing more from him. KIDS SEE GHOSTS is exactly the album I needed after feeling disappointed with ye.

9/10