kendrick lamar - mr. morale & the big steppers (2022)

https://i.imgur.com/vwzCXPo.jpg

"rich spirit" instant classic

he sounds more conflicted than ever. the way it ends is brilliant. a lot to process on one listen, but it immediately hits me as his most consistently personal work. oh, it's good tho.

it’s very heavy and very busy and much too much for me to process at 1:45am lol

the beat on “silent hill” is sooooo good. and im comfortable saying that the first, penultimate, and final tracks on here are career highlights

there's a lot to take in but i'm a bit underwhelmed overall on first listen idk

those three are certainly highlights yeah

"Rich Spirit" brilliant, agreed. It's gonna take some time to dig in.

Holy fuck

Lol at “beth gibbons from portishead”

Not gonna lie a bit disappointed about the aesthetic

… misdirect on “the heart pt. 5”

oof, "Auntie Diaries" is a hard no

and the first three notes of "Mother I Sober" are irresistibly Vince Guaraldi

featuring Kodak Black is definitely a choice

argh what's the sample on "Mirror" ? I can't remember where it comes from !

"the heart part 5" is a fair bit better than anything on this

👀

« We cry together » is… something. 5.30min of love and tenderness to share in a family setting !

I know I’m shallow, but

where are the bangers?

lmao the RYM shoutbox has already been deleted

Britishes aside, don't you people sleep?!

it was the absolute worst comments section i have ever seen on rym

"we cry together" would have been bad as a minute-long skit and yet it's the second longest track here

Not sure I'll ever willingly listen to We Cry Together again.

featuring Kodak Black is definitely a choice

― papal hotwife (milo z), Friday, May 13, 2022 3:04 AM (four hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

he’s been on every major rap album this year, so it’s a choice many have made.

there’s definitely something “uncanceling the canceled” about his prominence tho, that’s for sure

yeah it certainly feels like he's going for something like that but it also wildly clashes with "mother i sober"

I’m not surprised by the messiness, hypocrisy, and complexity of this album. Kendrick has been on this tip for awhile. The album hit me personally being a black male. So I won’t engage in the ILM snark. I think it’s great art. I will say it challenges the idea that seemingly conscious African-Americans are supposed to lead and have the answers. That’s been so ingrained in American culture that if the trope is challenged then the pitchforks come out.

I’m not surprised by the messiness, hypocrisy, and complexity of this album. Kendrick has been on this tip for awhile. The album hit me personally being a black male. So I won’t engage in the ILM snark. I think it’s great art. I will say it challenges the idea that seemingly conscious African-Americans are supposed to lead and have the answers. That’s been so ingrained in American culture that if the trope is challenged then the pitchforks come out.

Has Lamar ever mentioned is a trans male?

*his aunt

Not that I’m aware of. He seems to reveal things about them little by little in interviews.

After one listen, the best things on here are "We Cry Together," "Purple Hearts" and "Auntie Tales." The tap dancing is a really fascinating metaphor — made me think of Bamboozled.

real question: would the folks that have discrepancies with "auntie diaries" prefer he had said nothing? or rather: what did you want his view on trans acceptance to be and how did you want him to articulate that?

otherwise, lilsoulbrother fiercely otm. second listen this morning and i stand by my perfect rating.

Albums need not be perfect to be wonderful, though.

I'm cis & straight and only listened once, but the repeating slurs aspect struck me as, at the very least, an odd approach to take, and I can see why people would recoil from a straight man doing that without nec unpacking the entire song. I'm not sure what I think about that last line apart from being w(e)ary of these kinds of comparisons.

Beyond that, I don't like the binary of "say this or say nothing," but the way he mis/genders & deadnames the presumably real people he's talking about does raise questions about the representation of marginalized (an overly anodyne word) people by others...not that I have any immediate answers, but there's an idea in academic circles about the difference between speaking for and speaking with that I think is relevant here?

real question: would the folks that have discrepancies with "auntie diaries" prefer he had said nothing? or rather: what did you want his view on trans acceptance to be and how did you want him to articulate that?

my disappointment with "auntie diaries" doesn't really have anything to do with the views expressed within. it's clumsy, overly didactic, overlong, and generally lacks the sparkle of his best work.

i did like "we cry together" tho lol

I found "We Cry Together" unbearable, actually, and I queued three times to ensure the fuck-you-bitch thing hit me every time.

the alchemist snapped, though

i dont mind auntie diaries but his epiphany about slurs at the end is very clunky & anticlimactic. like i'm glad he's thinking about that but i didnt exactly need him to hold my hand through the whole song if thats where we were going. but alfred otm, on first listen i'm digging this despite the occasional clumsiness or misstep.

i feel like i've been harping on the negative a bit, but i definitely think that the album as a whole is incredibly impressive on a technical and artistic level. i appreciate the raw nerve, therapeutic aspect of it all and the bulk of it *sounds* fantastic.

On first pass this feels like a good album by a great artist — which for Kendrick makes it probably his weakest since his first, but that’s only a relative measure. (I think it’s kind of a classic case of the dreaded 3 1/2-star Rolling Stone review.) To my ears so far, it doesn’t advance anything much, it’s mostly him doing things we already know he can do, and with more moodiness and less verve than last time out. I think that is mostly a function of the things that have been occupying him, which are mostly internal and personal, and he has every right to his own occupations. Just because I don’t necessarily want to listen to a lot of introspection about his infidelity doesn’t mean that it’s not important for him to do. I agree that “Auntie Diaries” is a misfire but it seems well intended and it might actually reach some people, so I’ll just put it on my skip list and leave it be. “We Cry Together” is a plausible lovers’ quarrel but not an illuminating one, also on the skip list.

I just got to the beginning of "Mr. Morale" and this entire album is glorious

"mr. morale" is very "black skinhead"

Wasn’t expecting Pharrell to deliver that kind of track.

Great guest spots all over this

even beyond all the lyrical issues this is relatively boring musically for the most part & would be firmly his worst for that alone

I don’t think we are listening to the same album. At a minimum I am not processing it the way you are.

I wish this thread would shut down for at least two days to let ILM absorb it.

Should we meet back here Sunday?

Cool.

I'm still processing it, but I think it's really good. As someone mentioned, he's not so arrogant that he thinks he's wiser or more infallible than anyone else and he puts himself at the audience's level, but he doesn't pander either - it's honest and self-interrogating.

Haven't heard it yet (will do so tonight) but the polarized opinions around it so far both here and elsewhere are fascinating, and only seem to make me more intrigued. Can't wait.

As ever.

love the use of duval timothy and his piano throughout, his playing is mesmerizing