Kendrick Lamar’s “Swimming Pools” is a song about getting really drunk that sounds nothing like any of the similarly themed trifles you may have heard on the radio this year. His voice weaves under and around the beat, speeding up, slowing down, arguing with itself, conjuring images that are seductive and unsettling all at once: “First you get a swimming pool full of liquor, then you dive in it.” Matthew Trammell compared the overall effect to “futuristic West Coast Outkast,” which is just about right – except Kendrick ultimately resembles no one but himself.
