Review Summary: DAMN. sees Kendrick coming to terms with everything that's happening and has happened.
A quick look at the tracklist had probably already given everyone a basic idea of what this album is about. This is a concept album, there's no doubt about it. But it's not a concept album in the same fashion as his previous albums. No, no. DAMN. doesn't begin and end with a chronological story nor does it tell us his thoughts about his rise of fame. As each tracktitle consist of a single word, imagine Kendrick reading his journal, philosophizing about all kinds of situations and things that have happened to him and the people around him. Not just the ones he loves, but also the ones not so important to him, or even, his enemies. This album sees Kendrick looking at the good and bad things. God and Satan.
DAMN. is an album that's musically more stripped back and sample-heavy than everything else he's done lately. Which may come to a surprise to some, and may even scare off some. But the true beauty lies in the lyrical content, the true beauty lies in the way the album is built. As this album may be instrumentally simplified compared to To Pimp a Butterfly, it may also have given Kendrick the opportunity to truly focus on the words and it may have also given Kendrick an opportunity to use more changes of pace and/or instrumentation in each single track.
Like I said, this isn't an album necessarily filled with talk about fame and artists. I mean, sure, there are some songs here and there (take FEAR. for example), which talk about these topics. While this album is, of course, a collection of songs made by one of the most well-known and well-respected rappers in this day and age. DAMN. is also, most importantly, a young man looking back at all that he's accomplished and all that's happened to him before all the fame. DAMN. sees Kendrick looking at the world from the perspective of a normal human being, and it's pretty damn beautiful.
