there's no "alright" on the new kendrick, and that's...alright
Plus five great non-Kendrick Lamar songs for your week
We are flush with riches during Big Album Event Release season, and last Friday we got the long-awaited new LP from Kendrick Lamar, Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers.
The album is clearly indebted to therapy - see the album’s several samples of self-help author Eckhart Tolle’s audiobooks - as Kendrick takes the album to turn inwards. The resulting album is messier, more difficult, and overall more elusive than his last four albums, holding back on delivering a massive anthem a la “Alright” or “HUMBLE.”
The closest anthemic chorus might be on the closing track “Mirror,” whose refrain “I choose me, I’m sorry” is sure to anchor thousands of deeply annoying Instagram posts this summer. Scanning the record’s lyrics, Kendrick avoids talking about “we” for a lot of the record - he’s focused on his relationships, especially with himself, though “Mother I Sober” is a sharp look at the generational trauma that informs everything he’s dealing with. If anything, this is the Kendrick album we deserve, a navel-gazing step back into the world as we all adjust from two years of staying (and looking) inside.
And now, for the Good Links:
Hot Beef Ingestion: Robert Simonsen seeks out how to make a beloved Scranton dish on his own. This is neither music nor culture related, but this is exactly the type of weird shit I do on my own so I had to tip my hat here.
Hot Beef Misdirection: Ezra Marcus’ piece on the secondary economy of OnlyFans managers, chatters, and hustlers is worth the longread.
Hot Beef 2: Son of Beef: Adam Mastroianni explores how, by the numbers, we’re liking, watching, and paying for fewer artists, ideas, and franchises than ever. Seems bad!
And now, on to this week’s tracks - as always, you can follow along on our playlist on Spotify and Apple Music, which update every Tuesday along with the newsletter.
THE UNSKIPPABLES #36
Sam Gendel & Antonia Cytrynowicz - WONDERING, WAITING
LA saxophonist/producer Sam Gendel wrote the ten-track album LIVE A LITTLE “mostly in one sitting” with his partner's 11 year old daughter, resulting in a surprisingly listenable and inspired pop record. The first half of the LP will have you scratching your head, but as it settles in, Gendel and Cytrynowicz find the same unexpected intimacy of Tirzah or a “Kidz Bop” Broadcast. It far outlives its novelty, and the album’s peaks are some of the best songs of the week.
Tove Lo - No One Dies From Love
Built around a truly inspired disco refrain - “No one dies from love / guess I’ll be the first” - Tove Lo’s latest single feels cut from the same defiant cloth as Robyn’s “Body Talk” or Roisín Murphy’s “Roisin Machine.” Waiting a full minute before dropping any drums, the song’s deft construction and sparse instrumentation is built for the dancefloor, knowing exactly how to lean into the high drama of the chorus.
felicita & Kero Kero Bonito - Cluck
“Cluck” is exactly the type of synthetic pop soylent green you expect from PC Music, taken off volume 3 of their eponymous compilation series. The chorus hook is a literal chicken cluck, doused in dub echo, but it’s the song’s fatalist cheerleader chants that most memorably anchor the song’s tamagotchi heart.
Rip Pop Mutant - Et si jamais
“Et si jamais” is a spiraling, mutant pop jam from the new solo alias of Montreal’s Alex Ortiz, formerly of We Are Wolves. The song’s dirty, looping bass groove is a tiny perpetual motion machine upon which Ortiz throws his insouciant vocal refrains, John Carpenter-like chorus synth, cowbells, and closing chaotic sax solo. If the song wasn’t so well put together, it might sound scattershot, but the performance and composition feel sleek, like an expensive suit hidden in a dusty thrift store.
Obongjayar feat. Nubya Garcia - Wrong For It
“Wrong For It” sounds like Obonjayar singing over an afropop song played back at half speed, finding a wide range of unusual melodic pockets over the lush backdrop of synth brass and clattering percussion. The winning earworm might be his casually whistled hook, but low horns and speak-sung breaks overdeliver on memorable, winning charm throughout the song.
THROWBACK CORNER
Distrito 5 - Cafetosis Disco
Rubbery Spanish post-punk from 1982. The recorded version (below) is great, but this TV appearance shows all the different strands of punk the band were drawing from - check the B-52-worthy beehive on singer Patricia Garcia! The wordless vocal at 2:44 is the real highlight after the Adrian Belew-style guitar solo, but the whole track is funky, charming, and addicting.
And that’s all for this week, folks! Please subscribe if you’d like these opinions straight in your inbox. See you next week!