I just love how personal this album is, easily his most since Flower Boy. CMIYGL might be a little better paced and "exciting" but the one thing that always held it back for me was that it was mostly braggadocios and not all that deep. Still a great record, but this really seems to balance the kind of emotions he was exploring on Flower Boy with experimental production he explored on IGOR, Cherry Bomb, maybe even Wolf. It's a great amalgamation of what he's done musically and who he is as an artist right now
I can’t believe he was in Boston and I was an hour away driving around aimlessly listening to the album lmao wtf I’m genuinely upset
I love how much effort he puts into every album cycle. Every choice is really inspired. A fashion icon and great visual artist.
I've seen more than just @Carrow ask about the worthwhileness of the pre-Flower Boy stuff, so I've been thinking about making like a 10-song primer that people can use. "SMUCKERS" and "Rusty" are such ridiculously good songs. "I'm harder than DJ Khaled playing the fucking quiet game" made me laugh out loud this morning
I feel the exact opposite haha, I hate the personal throughline with his mom showing up and all these pat lessons about his own life... Obviously it's his art and his prerogative to do what he wants but nothing makes me cringe and disengage harder than when an artist makes everything about their family/personal shit up to and including Groundbreaking Personal Revelations and family members offering confessionals (I also hated it when the last Kendrick opened up to include his personal dirty laundry. I don't care man!!) Intended or not it feels like it's meant to stoke parasocial engagement and make you feel for the artist which...yuck. I'll take the braggadocio any fucking day,
There's "personal" and then there's laying out a full narrative with parental features, a difference of degrees I guess
Those exclusions are bummers though, glad to have this version on streaming. I wonder when this will hit my local record store