The Flaming Dark Lips of the Moon: A Review

(Sorry about the dinky little picture. I really couldn't find a bigger one of the actual album artwork)

Now that I have given the Flaming Lips' cover of "Dark Side of the Moon" a few listens I feel I can now make a judgment call about it.

Before even listening to the album, I had extremely high hopes, but at first listen I was almost offended. "What the hell is this shit?", I thought to myself. I was taken aback, being such a huge fan of the original album and even previous other cover attempts (such as Easy Star All-Stars 'Dub Side of the Moon'). I realized though, that I had approached this album from a wrong angle. This wasn't Pink Floyd, this wasn't even The Flaming Lips during their Soft Bulletin or Yoshi Battles the Pink Robots days. This was The Flaming Lips, right NOW, after releasing Embryonic and reaching back to their Psych-Rock-Acid-Punk freakout days (but not totally forgetting their musical endeavors over the last 10 years).

Taking that into consideration, I retract my distaste of the album. The Lips (with help from Stardeath and White Dwarfs, Peaches, and Henry Rollins) actually did a pretty nice job with it. It's ambitious and it's very Lips-esque, as it should be. A complete freakfest, with some interesting moments (and some not so interesting).

Here's an extremely brief and very lacking in vocabulary description runthrough/commentary of said "interesting moments" and "not so interesting" moments on the album:

1.Speak to Me / Breathe is done pretty well
2. the danceable On The Run jam is one of my favorites
3. Time wasn't too great (Dennis Coyne's voice sounds kind of weak and lame on it but the Breathe Reprise was cool.
4. The Great Gig In the Sky is cool (really nice try with Clare Torry's crazy vocal part.
5. Money starts of with potential but it's overall pretty horrible after the first 50 seconds, no energy really.
6. I miss the echo parts in Us and Them but overall it's pretty good.
7. Any Colour You Like is great (the screaming/scatting in the background is kind of hilarious.)
8. Brain Damage is more of a somber tune and fits Dennis's voice better. So with that in consideration, it's not too bad.
9. Eclipse has a similar feel to the original but for some reason I feel like it's missing something (maybe the background vocals?) nonetheless it's good.

And that's it!

This album is definitely worth a listen. Check it out.

Kid Cudi, Man On The Moon: A Positve Look and Listen Into The Future

Just about two weeks ago, the hyped about rapper, Kid Cudi, released his much anticipated first album, "Man on the Moon: The End of Day". Despite this being his first officially released album, fans of the "indie"/"new school" rapper had already tasted a bit of his style, flow, and skill through his various TV appearances, Album collaborations, Live performances, and free Mixtapes.

This Kanye West protégé (don't worry he only possess a few of Mr. West's character traits, hubris NOT being one of them) first caught the underground's (and Kanye's) attention with the July 2008 release of his mixtape entitled "A Kid Named Cudi", which combined elements of hiphop, jazz, rock and soul. A few months later Cudi made one of his first major musical appearance where he performed with Travis Barker and the late DJ AM on a side stage at the MTV Video Music Awards. Later in the year he also made his first album appearance on Kanye West's 808s and Heartbreak and then followed the (official) release of Cudi's highly popular single "Day 'n' Night".

Well enough background information, let's get into the "meat and potatoes" (mmmm) of this whole thing: the actual album itself....Actually, before I get into the album, let me make note of why exactly I'm writing about this. Besides the fact that I happen to really enjoy it, I feel as though the meager, barely over 100 word review by Jody Rosen of Rolling Stone does not do the album justice. It's pretty clear that the writer didn't really even give it a chance. Despite stating " the music is engrossing and Cudi's angst genuine" he mentions "his raps get pedestrian". If Rosen is looking for Eminem or JayZ like rhym prowess, he should probably look elsewhere (not saying Cudi's rhymes and lyrics are juvenile or terribly lacking). Additionally Rosen's comments that Cudi's assertion "ad nauseam that he is a 'lonely stoner' is just annoying" and "a hipster boast masquerading as a confession" is (in my opinion) way off. To my knowledge, the "lonely stoner" reference is only used on ONE of the album's songs (Day 'n' Night) and I feel it is not boastful but a true self-reflective statement. Anyway, maybe I have my own biases, but nonetheless..let's get into my own opinion.

On "Man on the Moon: The End of Day" Kid Cudi combines futuristic-new age-electro-spacerap with the singing, melody, and theatrics of Broadway show tunes (think Q-tip meets the Flaming Lips meets Kanye West meets Daft Punk). This isn't exactly a full on "rap" album to say the least, but that doesn't matter because it's new and it's different and (I think) it works. The production, which combines driving robotic-like drums, synths, melodic strings, and an array of other sounds is extremely ear pleasing and complements Cudi's unique on and off rap/croon style extremely well.

In a way, this is a "concept" album, consisting of 15 songs broken up into 5 separate acts (In order from 1-5 the acts are titled The End of Day, Rise of the Night Terrors, Taking a Trip, Stuck, and A New Beginning). Throughout the different acts on the album, in a sort of dream sequence, Kid Cudi deals with very real human emotions, struggles, and experiences such as: dreams, death, hopelessness, depression, and trying to rise above it all.

Surprisingly (or maybe not?), some of these very same elements make up much of the content of the Pink Floyd album, "Dark Side of the Moon" (which happens to be one of my favorite albums of all time). Because of the emotion expressed at the heart of much of this album (as well as Dark Side), which mirrors the emotions that all humans experience, it also evokes emotion from its listeners as well (especially on tracks like "Soundtrack 2 My Life", "Sky Might Fall", and "Pursuit Of Happiness").

As I said before, these themes are relatable to listeners because they all suggest different elements of the "human experience". Chris Thomas, the mix supervisor for "Dark Side of the Moon", once said, "what makes a great album is that you respond to it on an emotional level”. If this is true, then simply by default, Man on the Moon: The End of Day really is a great album and I'm not the only one who thinks so. Apart from a few less than stellar reviews from Slant, Rolling Stone (which i mentioned earlier), and the New York Times, most other reviews have been highly positive. Check the rest out HERE and if you're so inclined, give the album a listen and see (and hear) for yourself.

Kid Cudi's music not only sounds like the future, but it and he seem to both have a very "stellar" prospect ahead, because right now, where the Man on The Moon is standing, there is no Dark Side (ohhh no I didn't...yes I did).

Thanks for reading.
-b Funk