To say Kid Cudi doesn’t try hard isn’t fair. At this point, he has pretty much stopped trying altogether. Since releasing his highly introspective and heavily atmospheric debut, “Man on the Moon: The End of Day,” Cudi’s endeavors have been lazy at best, career-threatening at worst.

A boneheaded decision to foray into Weezer-ish guitar rock (“Erase Me”) and a flop-tastic, psychedelic rock record (“WZRD”) later, Cudi is back to his usual tricks on “Indicud”: clumsily mumbled verses, stoner jams and off-key choruses.

First single “Just What I Am” brings Cudi back to his image as “the lonely stoner” from blockbuster hit, “Day ‘N’ Nite.” While getting high was an integral part of it, the song used smoking as a metaphor for a scared rapper trying to fight off his demons. But “Just What I Am” boasts a monotonous chorus of “I want to get higher,” flat-lining when a robotic Cudi drones, “I need to smoke.”

Cudi tacks a rash epilogue onto one of his debut’s loneliest cuts with “Solo Dolo, Pt. II.” Where part one was minimalistic, escapist fantasy, “Part II” bleeds with cockiness and swagger. Like George Lucas’ “Star Wars” prequels, “Solo Dolo, Pt. II” feels like a slice of unnecessary revisionist history. Save for a fire-spitting Kendrick Lamar guest verse, the song falters pretty quickly.

It’s the guest list that Cudi cobbles together that saves “Indicud” from being an unsalvageable mess. When Cudi flies solo — on mostly off-melody and totally f*ckwittable “Unf*ckwittable” and unconvincing, sorry-for-smoking apology “Burn Baby Burn” — his faults are glaring.

He doesn’t rap all that well, he can’t sing on key and his flows stagnate.

So Cudi gets by — and gets high — with a little help from his friends. Garage rock-influenced “Young Lady” pairs Cudi’s mumbles with folksy vocals from Father John Misty, a la Bon Iver’s appearance on Kanye West’s “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.” Cudi’s sloppy love affair with rock music is apparently still not over: He drags all-female soft-rockers Haim into “Red Eye,” handing over the lion’s share of vocal duties.

For all of the guests who mesh with Cudi’s raw, ethereal production quality, a track list bursting with guest spots still boasts plenty of head-scratching selections. Wu-Tang Clan’s RZA and up-and-comer A$AP Rocky wipe the floor with Cudi on their respective tracks: violent club-banger “Beez” and sleepy-tempo “Brothers.”

The most laugh-out-loud moment on “Indicud” rears its head on the nine-minutelong “Afterwards (Bring Yo Friends),” when Michael Bolton comes the hell out of nowhere to wail the song’s bridge.

Sure, the washed-up 80s balladeer belted the chorus to The Lonely Island’s “Jack Sparrow” — and that song was awesome. But it was also a complete joke, and Bolton’s winking-at-the-audience performance was its punch line. Somehow, Cudi thought having Bolton sing a completely straight-faced bridge was a smart idea, and the result is embarrassing for all parties involved.

Cudi also flaunts a few instrumental cuts, including bass-rattling opener, “The Resurrection of Scott Mescudi” and spacey, drum-machine-driven closer, “The Flight of the Moon Man.” The instrumental tracks just go to prove Cudi’s woeful lack of experience behind the mixing boards.

He’s certainly no Kanye in the production studio.

At this point in his career, Cudi is just spinning his wheels. “Indicud” was meant to be a grand artistic statement and a giant leap away from his “Man on the Moon” series. But it devolves instead from the shrewd introspection that garnered Cudi acclaim in the first place, and is perfectly content with being a slapdash string of stoner anthems.

Outside of his faithful “lonely stoner” demographic, Cudi’s casual fans will tire quickly of his antics on “Indicud.” Maybe it’s time for him to stop mumbling about weed and actually have something to say again.

Published on April 23, 2013 at 1:01 am

Contact Erik: ervanrhe@syr.edu | @therealvandyman