This album is objectively very good. I wonder if I would think so if I was coming to Kendrick Lamar having never heard of him. The old Joshua Bell problem, a world-class violinist playing in a DC Metro station and almost no one notices. I don't know a lot about rap, and I don't know a lot about classical music. Musicians would say it doesn't matter, that it matters how it makes me feel. By that metric, this album is enjoyable, and good. It needs a deep listen. I need its poetry read at an open mic. The background beats and riffs are spare and work well. "man at the garden" is such a good song. I, too, deserve it all, but I don't really believe that. I feel like I don't deserve anything because I've gotten so much. Maybe I'll make that song my anthem?
It must be a lot of pressure to be Kendrick Lamar. Such sky-high expectations. And he delivers, over and over. I read something about Tame Impala not making music under the Tame Impala name for five years because of the pressure of being Tame Impala. And then he got high and drunk and made a really good album. I don't like that, even though I really like Tame Impala's music. I don't like the glorification of drugs for art. Maybe it's helpful sometimes. I don't know.
"gloria" made me stop in my tracks. What did I take from it? We tend to criticize our parents. I feel like our generation is even worse than others, with "childhood trauma" taking a front seat. But our parents give us our charisma, to some extent, like it or not. Let's admit it more than we care to.
1 comment:
I like learning something from these reviews. I had never heard of the Joshua Bell thing!
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