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Sep 17, 2012At least five of these songs [out of twelve] should've remained on the cutting room floor.
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Sep 18, 2012While every second of Cruel Summer sounds high quality, it never feels cohesive.
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Sep 17, 2012For every fiery, self-serious verse here, you'll find at least one maladroit dud.
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Sep 25, 2012Cruel Summer has too few of these transcendent moments and is decidedly less than the sum of its parts.
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Sep 27, 2012All the best cuts are Ye-led and stellar. He's as inventive, hilarious and potent as ever. The guest list, however, is less consistent.
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Sep 28, 2012Cruel Summer is certainly an accomplished CD, and perhaps by sheer numbers can claim to be as massive as it assumes, but it's mostly a disc that don't have much unifying character other than "yea, this sounds as big as G.O.O.D. Music's ego."
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Oct 11, 2012Other posses succeeded because all members contributed to a central sensibility and ethos that made the whole greater that the sum of its parts. G.O.O.D. Music just obscures the greatness already there.
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Sep 18, 2012The biggest fault of Cruel Summer may be that it lacks a unifying voice or vision.
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Sep 20, 2012Consider Cruel Summer the first real creative vacation West has taken in his illustrious career – an occasionally exhilarating, ultimately underwhelming showcase for Kanye and his friends.
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Sep 24, 2012Cruel Summer isn't a Kanye album per se, but even as a high-pedigree compilation, it still falls flat.
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Sep 18, 2012So no, this is not a cohesive crew album, but has there really been one since Marley Marl's In Control, Vol. 1 came out 24 years ago?
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Sep 26, 2012With Cruel Summer, Kanye's corralled an impressive roster of allies and contemporaries to make a sleek, state-of-the-art album that's not half as good as one of those more modest old offerings.
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Sep 21, 2012The music Kanye West reserves for his own albums is so much more ambitious than that apportioned to the collaborations on this compilation from his new label, Good Music. Which isn't to say it's not effective.
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Sep 18, 2012Mr. West is often nowhere to be found, and more crucially, nowhere to be felt. Parts of this album - "Sin City," "The One," "Creepers" - feature what's easily the laziest music on any Kanye-related project, with no trace of his trademark meticulousness.
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Sep 18, 2012Cruel Summer is half a classic and half a concession to mediocre talents.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 88 out of 117
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Mixed: 22 out of 117
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Negative: 7 out of 117
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Sep 20, 2012
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Feb 16, 2013
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Sep 19, 2012