Day 0995 - Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City

Kendrick Lamar "Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City" (2012)

I guess this is one of those ones where the people putting the 1001 albums together had to choose some promising newer items and hope they'd pan out.    Well, many albums, much critical acclaim, a successful soundtrack and even a damned Pulitzer later and they seem to have called it correctly on Kendrick.

Kendrick started off producing mixtapes and doing a few gigs under the name K-Dot.   As things started to pick up, he dropped the K-Dot name and released an EP and his debut.   His star was in ascendancy from early on and he was signed to Interscope Records and Dr Dre's Aftermath Entertainment.

Kendrick grew up around gangs without being involved in them.   That seems to come out in his lyrics here, reporting on the dangers and stress of the streets without revelling in it or bragging about it.   Especially a track like "The Art of Peer Pressure" where he reflects on the need to try and do the drugs and act like a tough guy when he's 'with the homies'.

For "Good Kid, M.A.A.D City" Kendrick said he wanted to return to his Compton roots.   The album is mostly stripped down, focussing largely on snappy beats and low-n-slow basslines.   Something like "Backseat Freestyle" almost sounds dubby at the start and there are some similarities to Dizzee Rascal's grime sound.  Elsewhere a track like "Sing About Me, I'm Dying of Thirst" has a nice jazzy guitar backing and more lyrics expressing the unease and sense of danger on the streets.

Day 0974 - Cross

 Justice “Cross” (2007)

The book billed Justice as successor to Daft Punk's electro-pop crown, and heaps praise on them.  All of that just, in my contrarian way, set me against it... but it won me over from the first track.

The music occasionally has touches of Daft Punk particularly on "Genesis" and "Phantom II", but they are more than just mere imitators.   Apparently they were aiming to create a 'disco opera', I don't really get that out of it but it has the kind of grand, cinematic vibe that I tend to enjoy.

"Let There be Light", is slightly discordant (in a good way) and pulsing with almost a rocking proggy bent to parts of it.   Single "D.A.N.C.E." starts with some kids sounding like the Jackson 5 and then busts into a fun disco groove.

The next few tracks delve into retro synth sounds with bursts of distorted, fuzzed out sound and are largely instrumental, but just in case you were missing lyrics and a human voice they're provided on "Tthhee Ppaarrttyy" and "DVNO"

"Stress" builds a dramatic, urgent groove around David Shire's "Night on Disco Mountain"  before seguing into what almost sounds like a Spaghetti Western theme.

Another album that was better than I'd thought it was going to be.  Happy to be proven wrong in these situations.