Non-Metal Recommendation of the Month: Kid Cudi - Man on The Moon, Vol. II: The Legend of Mr. Rager

What the hell?!  A rap album on a predominately metal blog?!  That's right.  This month's non-metal recommendation has little to no similarities to anything I've ever posted on here before.  But isn't that the point of this monthly post?  To be edgy and throw something on the table that most metal elitists will hate?  Regardless, I digress.  

Cudi's second full-length release brings some of his most catchy and intricate work to date with tracks such as "Marijuana" and "Mojo So Dope."  This album is rooted in two different schools of music - The first school being the school of rap/hip-hop, and the second being the school of atmosphere.  There are certain tracks on this album that sound like a hip-hop track combined with certain atmospheric passages that sound incredibly inspired from Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of The Moon."  What I'm trying to say is, this is not a run-of-the-mill rap album.  All of the songs on the album have their own characteristics, atmosphere and mood to them.  Every track is an example of the effort and expertise of the artists craft.

This album will provide the diversity to your music library that you are searching for.  The other plus side to this album is that it's mainstream enough to be extremely accessible to any new listeners, yet well done enough to appreciate certain subtleties that most new mainstream artists fail to deliver.  I can't stress enough how well done this album is.  It's certainly an album that demands multiple re-plays to fully appreciate.  This is mainly due to how the album is mixed.  On the first listen, you'll probably appreciate the lyrical flow and general beats of the album.  On the second, third, fourth (and so on) listens, you'll start to pick out the background instruments and sounds that take this album to a completely new level.

This being said, this album isn't recommended for all the hard-up metal elitists out there.  But, I'm guessing once they saw which album I was recommending, they closed the tab on my page.  So, to everyone else that's still reading - Check this album out!