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DAMN. is still making a huge impression on me. I feel like I lived with the first half of the album for a month (plus DUCKWORTH.) and now I'm starting to really let the second half sink in. "LOVE" and "FEAR" and "GOD" and "XXX" are all such great songs. I feel like Kendrick's personality is finally coming through on this album... like, his sense of humor and his real bare-bones self. I've loved him for a while now, but I've seen him as a rapper, limited to bars even if they're great ones.
Now it's like there's more there. Maybe just because I have listened enough to feel like I understand his personality a bit more now, but he's coming across much more like a full-fledged artist and less like just a technical wizard. I feel like I can finally relate to this album's more universal themes of conscience and morality and self-scrutiny, whereas his previous albums have been hard for me to relate to as a middle class white nerd.
I think this might be his best album. It's been stuck in my head pretty much since it dropped, and I'm still listening to it a month later and finding new shit to like. DAMN. is just a really strong fucking album all around — not just a good rap record.
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