DAMN probably isn’t the album you expect it to be or, at least, it wasn’t the album I was expecting. It’s a more focused, kind of stripped down album in a lot of ways, at least toward the beginning. Throughout the first four or five songs, I kept thinking that this felt like a pretty standard, unremarkable rap album. I was aware that the album was improving as it went along, something albums rarely do anymore. Most of them, it seems, want to start with a bang and then peter out. It was surprising to me that Lamar released a version of the album that was inverted, ie. it was in reverse order to the original album since, listening to the original version, I thought it was one of the best sequenced albums in recent memory. Regardless, repeated listens revealed riches even in that first third I’d originally been unimpressed by. It’s still true that the last half of the album is superior to the first half, but that first half is impressive in its own right. Lamar has really crafted a deeply effective album that is raw, intense and dark. The specter of damnation really hangs over the album, whether Lamar is discussing the fate of his own nature in DNA or the legitimate curse of God in Fear. There’s not much in the way of respite once this album kicks off, fittingly with the sound of a gunshot. It’s very grim, very serious and, while there is still posturing found here, the mood is mostly one of uncertainty and dread. The stripped down sound gives some tracks a seriously claustrophobic feeling and the album kind of crackles with an intense heat. There are a couple of missteps; the woe begotten Lust is probably the worst track on the record. But it’s more than balanced by the tracks that rise above the very good to become genuinely great; Humble, Loyalty, DNA, Feel. But it’s those final four tracks that really just cohere into something truly grand and epic. This album is very thematic, from start to finish, but those final four songs really coalesce everything the album has been about, particularly the dazzling Fear, the foreboding, doom-laden heart of the album. But after all the darkness, perhaps Lamar’s most daring move is in finding a moment of hope near the end. We may be living under a curse, Lamar seems to say, but with the brilliant Duckworth, he muses on the way a single choice to eschew violence has resonated down the generations of his own family. There may or may not be a way out of the cursed cycle of violence that Lamar spends most of this album musing on; but with every righteous choice we make, we reveal surprising riches. It’s testament to Lamar’s skills that this ending doesn’t feel cheap; it feels earned and hard-won. Right decisions aren’t easy, particularly in the world we live in, but maybe they’re all we have. This album ends up being a profound artistic statement and Lamar further cements himself as a true visionary in his field. And that final sentiment feels absolutely right somehow; things get bad, but as long as we have artists like Lamar making art this powerful and moving, there’s still hope. 4 stars.
tl;dr – dark, claustrophobic album boasts thematic depth, emotional evocativeness and ends up making a profound artistic statement; a true masterpiece from a true master. 4 stars.