Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers

2022

Kendrick’s fifth studio album and his first in the five years since DAMN., the enormously anticipated Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers sports a mock-heroic title that sounds like a hit Broadway musical. Fittingly, there’s more than enough drama on this 18-track, 73-minute opus of self-discovery and interrogation. He pulls no punches, addressing a trans family member’s perseverance — despite rampant homophobia — on the majestic “Auntie Diaries,” which is one of his most personal and heartfelt songs. And “We Cry Together” is a brutally honest and sometimes humorous examination of his own latent misogyny.