Music

Album Review: untitled unmastered.

26 March 2016

By Oisin

untitled unmastered. is a collection of songs that didn’t quite make it on to Kendrick’s other albums. Some are post-project afterthoughts, while others contain verses that Kendrick spontaneously performed, such as his performance on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.

As the album name suggests, all of the tracks are rough cuts: they have not been mastered so offer a raw incomplete Kendrick sound. All of the songs are untitled, so are distinguishable simply by the numbers 01-08, and a date is given for each track, which gives us insight to Kendrick’s creative process.

Rather than stand-alone, untitled unmastered. is best thought of as an accompaniment to last year’s To Pimp A Butterfly as it explores similar themes and once again incorporates a lot of jazz. Typical of Kendrick, few tracks stand out alone; rather the album is a cinematic (and slightly jarring) experience. However, saying that, ‘untitled 02 | 06.23.2014.’ is a solid track (if a little rough around the edges) in its own right.

Top tracks: ‘untitled 02 | 06.23.2014’, ‘untitled 05 | 09.21.2014’, ‘untitled 07 | 2014 – 2016’.

Kendrick performing ‘untitled 02’ on the Jimmy Fallon show.

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