Quarterly Critic’s Choice
The best and most interesting new releases of the previous three months are awarded a place on the Quarterly Critic’s Choice. Evaluation criteria are artistic quality, repertoire value, presentation, and sound quality. From 2014 onward, the Long Lists are stored directly with each Quarterly Critic’s Choice.
NEW: Long List 2/2024, published on 5th April 2024
R&B, Soul and Hip-Hop
Kendrick Lamar: Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers
CD/2 LP, Interscope Records 00602445886906 (Universal)
Compton rapper Kendrick Lamar’s fifth album grants us a deep look into his innermost. It is his most personal and diverse work to date, published 1855 days after his Pulitzer Prize-winning work »Damn« (2018) – and after a writing block. Self-criticism plays a part, along with social criticism, coping with the past, family stories, and traumas. It is about toxic relationships, cancel culture, life, and suffering. Never before has a rapper been praised positively in so many papers. And after one weekend, it was decided already: Lamar leads the annual streaming charts at Apple Music. For the jury: Jörg Wachsmuth