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Club shrewdly labels it "a bonus disc that improbably holds up as an essential album in its own right." Wikipedia-a de facto authority in these matters-designates it a "compilation album." Pitchfork, in a glowing review, notes that it's "neither album nor mixtape (or even EP or LP)" but instead "extended coda." Rolling Stone designates it a "set of odds and ends," while Exclaim settles for "a brilliant mini-album." The A.V. untitled unmastered is similarly heady but far easier to take in one sitting: At 34 minutes, it's the length of an EP or a punk-era LP, but about half the length of a Lamar album proper. That album was almost unanimously heralded among the year's best albums, so a surprise encore feels more than welcome. "I got a chamber of material from the album that I was in love where sample clearances or something as simple as a deadline kept it off the album," Lamar revealed earlier in the year. It's a set of demos and asides associated with last year's sprawling To Pimp a Butterfly.
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Untitled unmastered seized the Internet by surprise on Friday with its minimalist cover art and free-jazzy grooves, but it is not an album of new material. This shouldn't be surprising, because it's Kendrick, but it's strange, considering this is a bunch of leftovers. Kendrick Lamar's untitled unmastered is better and more daring than most of the hip-hop albums that have been released this year.