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9.1
84465
9.1 |
Pretty Much Amazing
Is this the direction we want to see artists going, revealing their vault works to please a feverish fanbase? With a Renaissance man like Kendrick Lamar, the answer is yes, with anyone else, the conclusion is still up in the air
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9.1
84497
9.1 |
A.V. Club
A bonus disc that improbably holds up as an essential album in its own right
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9.0
84458
9.0 |
FasterLouder
untitled’s 34 minutes are so crammed with ideas that they almost need to be read like poetry, with annotations, to be fully appreciated
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9.0
84459
9.0 |
Tiny Mix Tapes
It’s both ambient yet thrashing, melodic yet radiating
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9.0
84556
9.0 |
Paste Magazine
Instead of shying away from the long shadow of To Pimp a Butterfly, untitled unmastered happily embraces that shared DNA, reveling in the subtleties that set it apart
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9.0
84609
9.0 |
The 405
He continues to hold our attention as he makes sense of his own findings on God and race and legacy and perfection
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8.8
84471
8.8 |
AU Review
Even Lamar’s off-cuts are meatier than anything many of his peers could even hope to produce at their peak
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8.6
84514
8.6 |
Pitchfork
In execution, untitled unmastered. is everything reverse of Kanye West's recent The Life of Pablo—it's a small and quiet statement from an artist with little to prove at this moment
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8.5
84546
8.5 |
Beardfood
His words meaningful and his flow on point as always, the tracks sketchy yet innovative, he raises the bar once again
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8.5
84498
8.5 |
The Line Of Best Fit
Shows a more casual but just as powerful brilliance
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8.1
85039
8.1 |
Earbuddy
See review
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8.0
85070
8.0 |
All Music
As vital as anything else its maker has released
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8.0
85586
8.0 |
Q
The result may be a different kind of journey, complete with detours and dead-ends, but it's as compelling as any he's taken so far. Print edition only
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8.0
88692
8.0 |
Gig Soup
Cohesive, raw and completely fearless
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8.0
84570
8.0 |
DIY
To call ‘untitled unmastered.’ a follow-up would be unfair, but what it reveals is that rap’s most innovative has a lot more left in his locker
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8.0
84598
8.0 |
PopMatters
Kendrick Lamar can still command attention like no other. Even in this concentrated, pared-down form, the music of Kendrick Lamar doesn’t cease to amaze
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8.0
84620
8.0 |
The FT
It is an intriguing companion piece to one of the most significant albums of recent years
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8.0
84679
8.0 |
State
Another eight tracks in a similar vein to those on his 2015 album
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8.0
84747
8.0 |
Crack
The dense, jazzy production, though beautifully played and often—indeed—sweet and sunny, is also sonically unresolved. It billows and seethes, with dissonant horn-runs flickering across even its smoother surfaces
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8.0
84958
8.0 |
God Is In The TV
A wealthy insight into the mind and working of an artist who is quite rightly considered a genius, just without any of the added self-hype or media hysteria
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8.0
84499
8.0 |
Clash
It’s a confident and powerful statement, and one that underlines his complete and utter dominance of the genre at this moment
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8.0
84503
8.0 |
Drowned In Sound
For all of its discordance, there is both the degree of palpable cohesion belying To Pimp A Butterfly and the unorthodox narrative of GKMC that lures the listener close
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8.0
84510
8.0 |
NME
But if this really is just a collection of offcuts, we can only join the cheers of “Pimp pimp… Hooray!”
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8.0
84549
8.0 |
Exclaim
untitled unmastered. is a brilliant mini-album that stands well on its own, but it works even better as a fascinating To Pimp a Butterfly appendix
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8.0
84523
8.0 |
Mojo
The short length and minimal production means Untitled Unmastered occasionally lacks the dynamics of Lamar’s previous work, but it remains an enthralling postscript to his masterpiece
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8.0
84473
8.0 |
NOW
The tunes share the same free-wheeling, layered jazz and funk textures, evoking both the Roots and early 90s Mint Condition
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8.0
84456
8.0 |
The Observer
The relaxed flipside to the ambitious, self-conscious statement of To Pimp a Butterfly, a collection whose understatement allows different facets of Lamar’s talent to shine
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8.0
84460
8.0 |
Spin
Unmastered. feels more like a prayer circle or hip-hop cypher than an album weighted down by a capital-C concept
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7.5
84463
7.5 |
Consequence Of Sound
Only King Kendrick's demos could sound this intentional and powerful
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7.0
84457
7.0 |
Rolling Stone
Ultimately, this is a set of odds and ends, inspired freestyles and funk jams
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7.0
84599
7.0 |
The Quietus
A perfectly fine release, Untitled Unmastered doesn't exist to change anyone's mind about Lamar
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7.0
84610
7.0 |
The Music
Untitled? Yes. Unmastered? Perhaps. Unprepossessing, unshackled, unputdownable? Certainly
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