ALBUM OF THE WEEK
Kendrick Lamar
“To Pimp a Butterfly”
★★★½
He survived Compton on 2012’s “good kid, m.A.A.d city,” but Kendrick Lamar’s return to his old stomping ground on follow-up “To Pimp a Butterfly” is an even more dense and enthralling voyage. The 27-year-old rapper’s third album is rich in funk and jazz influences, but Lamar’s stories still make you lean in closer. He vividly describes the self-doubt and scrutiny brought about by his success, and makes sober observations on ongoing racial tensions and poverty during “Hood Politics” and “How Much a Dollar Cost.” But this is no state-of-the-world address, because Lamar is too riddled with his own conflicts to suggest he has all the answers (as outlined in his fictional “interview” with 2Pac in closer “Mortal Man”). “To Pimp a Butterfly” captures a complex mind brilliantly documenting a complex time.
DOWNLOADS OF THE WEEK
Mumford & Sons
“Believe”
½
Touted as a reinvention of the band’s banjo-bashing sound, Mumford & Sons’ attempt to rock out on “Believe” (from their upcoming album “Wilder Mind”) is simply a different kind of insipidness. The Brits do a subpar imitation of subpar U2 and, as usual, Marcus Mumford’s vocals sound anemic inside the bluster. The more they try to change, the more they seem to stay the same.
Jason Derulo
“Want to Want Me”
★
Derulo’s oversexed hits of the last few years have been club smashes, but on his new single (the first from his upcoming fourth album), he’s clearly trying a little too hard to write a radio hit. “Want to Want Me” is textbook electro-pop, complete with Derulo singing about a crush in a Justin Timberlake-esque falsetto. But instead of sounding slick and sophisticated, the track feels lightweight and generic.
M.I.A.
“Can See Can Do”
★★
“There’s only a few things that can knock me off my track,” raps M.I.A. on her first new material in two years. Presumably, one of those things is getting sued by the NFL for her one-fingered Super Bowl salute in 2012 — but if she did stumble, “Can See Can Do” is a fine way of regaining her balance. The hypnotic beat and the catchy hook aren’t exactly radical departures from the past, but M.I.A.’s brashness is still enough to convince.
Modest Mouse
“Pistol (A. Cunanan, Miami, FL. 1996)”
★★★
While the indie-rockers’ new album “Strangers to Ourselves” is solid, much of it sounds very much like Modest Mouse has always sounded. But on this wonderfully bizarre standout, the Washington state band brandishes hip-hop beats, gonzo funk and tongue-in-cheek sexual imagery. “I’ve got a pistol that I need to unload,” sings frontman Isaac Brock. It’s faintly absurd, but for such an earnest band, this makes for a refreshing change.
Muse
“Psycho”
★½
Having made a career out of over-the-top bombast, it’s underwhelming to hear “Psycho” is essentially Muse-by-numbers. Lifted from the forthcoming album “Drones,” the track is built around rolling riffs (at least one of which is a direct steal from the Doors’ “Roadhouse Blues”) and stilted lyrics about mind control. But the Brit trio’s usual rock fireworks don’t explode as dramatically as they used to.
Snoop Dogg
“Peaches N Cream”
★
Snoop Dogg’s scent for the zeitgeist seems a bit off these days. After floundering in the world of reggae as Snoop Lion, he’s now enlisted Pharrell Williams as producer on “Peaches N Cream,” a disco-lite song about lusting after big butts. The sound and themes of the last two years have finally caught up with the Doggfather, but for the rest of us, the peaches are overripe and the cream has long since gone sour.