Tonight, the Moon Man blessed us with the latest installment in his ongoing other worldly saga. On Satellite Flight: The Journey to Mother Moon, we find Cudi a little older, gravitating towards post-materialism, obsessed with production, less braggadocious, and still trying to trade the rap facade for artist credit. A series of 808s, claps, warbles, wobbles, and synths, take us to some ethereal location where Cudi occasionally spits/wails/croons and spends the rest of the time immersed in his latest hobby…creating elaborate soundscapes.

We got our first taste of Kid Cudi’s non-committal relationship with actually rapping on Man On The Moon II’s “We Aite” where Cudi shirked all expectations of rhymes for some gentle repetition over drums and the hum of a sold out crowd, then came WZRD and we figured Cudi had it all out of his system and might be ready to start giving us classic cudder bars in album form again, and while the raps did eventually come, Scott seems to prefer to save them for his famous friends (e.g. “First Chain”, “Old School Caddy”). In exchange, we have the ambitious “Copernicus Landing”, a 4 and a half minute instrumental outing reminiscent of Phoenix’s “Love Like A Sunset”, taking us to the absolute heights of Cudi’s artistic and production abilities and to that ethereal place I mentioned previously (firmly lodged in a crater on Mother Moon?), easily transcending his solo production work thus far save the Michael Bolton laced “Afterwards (Bring Yo Friends)” found on Indicud.

Lyrically, the crisis is still existential. Women still render the coolest of the cool guys unbelievably vulnerable. Haters are just mad because they stopped dreaming long ago so continue to steez on ‘em. When you cut him, he bleeds…

If you hold your breath waiting for Cudder to rip it, you will die, so I don’t recommend it; however, if you can wait 20 minutes Cudi reverts to his beloved wizardry on “Too Bad I Have To Destroy You Now.”

Once upon a time Mescudi mused, “Hope, I really get to see 30 wanna settle down stop being so flirty” and at 30, we’ve got a wiser, tamer Scott Mescudi. The preoccupation with weed and whiskey has been overshadowed by primo denim and his new found sobriety. And just when Cudi really starts to ruminate aloud, he audibly drops the mic.

Notable Tracks: “Copernicus Landing” “Balmain Jeans” “Too Bad I Have to Destroy You Now”