HIP-HOP

Kid Cudi, "Man on the Moon: The End of Day" (Universal Motown)

Kid Cudi has emerged in the past year as hip-hop's unlikeliest relief pitcher. On Kanye West's "808s & Heartbreak" he co-wrote "Heartless" and "Paranoid" and a nimble hook to "Welcome to Heartbreak." On Jay-Z's new "The Blueprint 3," he makes "Already Home" alluringly woozy. But why save others if you can't save yourself? "Man on the Moon," the Cleveland star's debut CD, is a colossal -- and mystifying -- missed opportunity.

Unlike most music featuring the touch of West (executive producer here), "Man on the Moon" is imprecise and disjointed. (The two songs he produced are exceptions: the bombastic "Sky Might Fall" and "Make Her Say," a clever rewriting of Lady Gaga's "Poker Face.")

Kid Cudi isn't quite rapping or singing here, instead puzzling through a sort of loose, hazily melodic talking. Much of his songwriting is astonishingly emotionally naked, of the sort that lent his debut single, "Day N Nite," such urgency. But on most of this album, which is several notches below last year's often spectacular mixtape "A Kid Named Cudi," he doesn't sound committed, only confused.

It's a style that's suited best to the astral productions of producer Emile: the appealingly creepy "Solo Dolo" and "Cudi Zone," where Kid Cudi channels Andre 3000, and which is his most vivid and complex vocal performance here. But that vitality, that punch, is all but missing from the rest of the album, with its star reduced to a gaseous nonentity.

JON CARAMANICA , NEW YORK TIMES

World

Os Mutantes, "Haih" (Anti-)

Brought to most Americans' attention with the 1999 collection "Everything Is Possible," this Brazilian troupe was active in the late '60s and '70s, juggling politics and romance while reconfiguring psych-, pop-, folk- and later prog-rock. "Haih" is the band's first album in 35 years, but you wouldn't know it. There are giddy vocal harmonies, countless ear-popping revelations and more than two dozen instruments on display, while fellow Tropicalia legend Tom Ze co-wrote much of the album. Politics remain in view, from the Iraq-focused "Baghdad Blues" to the Castro-skewering "Samba Do Fidel." Sung mostly in Portuguese, such defiant lyrics don't translate as easily as the playful, vibrant music, but they're the urgent engine driving Os Mutantes' welcome new chapter.

The group performs Sept. 26 at the Cedar Cultural Center in Minneapolis.

DOUG WALLEN, PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER