Various Artists | Black Panther, The Album Music From and Inspired By

Kendrick Lamar’s soundtrack to the groundbreaking black superhero film suffers from lofty expectations

Kendrick Lamar was the perfect choice to lend his name and talents to the Black Panther soundtrack album. (In addition to performing on most of its 14 songs, the Compton rapper co-produced and “curated” the album with record label exec Anthony Tiffith.) Lamar elicits an extraordinary reverence, with critic and fan alike, that is possibly unmatched in music right now. Each of his last four albums has placed at or near the top of most year-end lists. His Grammy performances in 2016 and this past January received widespread acclaim, while touching on controversial issues. Musically and culturally speaking, he’s a hero. Sure, a super one.

So it’s a close call which is more anticipated, the ceiling-shattering Marvel movie—the first with a black character as its star — or Kendrick’s album about it. This is especially so following the steady barrage of Black Panther previews, primarily using Vince Staples’ techno banger “BagBak” from last year, along with a snippet from Gil Scott-Heron’s 1970s anthem “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised.” That mix of electro hip-hop and rage was exactly what Kanye West did on his 2013 album Yeezus, a record that has clearly influenced Staples and this soundtrack. In fact, hearing some of this album’s shortcomings lead me to back to Yeezus, which had some weaknesses of its own but a lot more tightness.

And ultimately this is where the Black Panther soundtrack suffers, as many albums inspired by or made for movies do: artists save their best songs for their own records. There are good tracks here, in particular Khalid’s polished “The Ways” (with Rae Sremmurd’s Swae Lee), and Kendrick’s first singles “All The Stars” and “Pray For Me,” featuring SZA and The Weeknd on vocals, respectively. “Pray For Me” nearly nails that Yeezus-BagBak techno-protest sound, without the rage, and it’s a surprise that Daft Punk didn’t produce it (as the French electronic-music duo did on The Weeknd’s last record). Using Daft Punk was one of Kanye West’s great hip-hop innovations, too, sampling “the robots” to brilliant effect on his 2007 smash “Stronger.” So perhaps, in hindsight, maybe another rapper would have been an even better pick to make this record. No offence, Kendrick. B

Best songs: “The Ways” by Khalid and Swae Lee | “All The Stars,” by Kendrick Lamar and SZA
Worst songs: “Paramedic!” by SOB X RBE | “Seasons” by Mozzy, Sjava and Reason