As a collaborative album featuring the performers of Kanye West’s GOOD Music label, “Cruel Summer,” ideally, would show off the label’s variety of performers. Indeed, this is the key to any successful crew album. But when Kanye West is the head of a label, it’s safe to say the record won’t be conventional. With West’s solo records, that leads to great music. But on “Cruel Summer,” it doesn’t work as well. In the album, West relentlessly refuses to be upstaged by label-mates like Big Sean and Pusha T. “Cruel Summer” has some high moments, like “Clique,” which boasts a stellar hook and one of Jay-Z’s best verses since “The Blueprint 3.” West and Pusha T deliver stunning verses in “New God Flow,” backed by a beautifully simplistic beat. But “Cruel Summer” is ultimately too short on quality music to entertain. Instead, it constantly leaves its listeners wondering about how great it could have been.

Grade: C+