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"The little girl
just could not sleep
because her thoughts
were way to deep
her mind had gone
out for a stroll
and fallen down
the rabbit hole.”
-Lewis Carroll
Welcome, to a review of "Drunk” by Thundercat. Retweets and likes appreciated!
just could not sleep
because her thoughts
were way to deep
her mind had gone
out for a stroll
and fallen down
the rabbit hole.”
-Lewis Carroll
Welcome, to a review of "Drunk” by Thundercat. Retweets and likes appreciated!
Thundercat, (or TC as we’ll call him) is an American bassist, best noted for his extensive work on "To Pimp A Butterfly” by Kendrick Lamar, a critically acclaimed album worldwide. "Drunk” is his 3rd studio album, and in my opinion, his best. It delves into...
many different ideas and topics, like how we are glued to the internet and technology on "Bus in These Streets,” or the endless repeating routines and cycles life brings us on "Captain Stupido.” There are many motifs and concepts that reappear throughout the record, such as on...
"A Fans Mail,” where TC uses the idea of living as a cat, a worry and care free life, and compares that to the struggles and problems that people have to go through on a daily basis. With TC’s captivating, strange, and thoughtful vocals and instrumentals, all these emotions...
that he conveys are portrayed beautifully. The first track said it best, "Let’s go hard, get drunk, and travel down a rabbit hole.” Thats the perfect way to describe this album. One long, winding, soothing, and oddball rabbit hole that explores so many different avenues...
of the human experience. Death comes up often on the album, predominantly on the tracks, "Lava Lamp” and "Jethro.” On Lava Lamp, TC speaks of chasing down someone who had passed, speaking on the troubled past they had together, and putting all of it behind him and begging that...
"I wake up dead.” He doesn’t want to let go of this person, but he understands that they will never meet each other again. "Maybe in another life,” he says, not knowing of what’s beyond death. "Jethro” continues on this concept of death and somberness...
but in a more abstract way, it conveys the feeling of helplessness that death brings, of never being able to change the outcome. Death brings loneliness, death brings heartache, death brings pain. That’s why TC gets drunk so often throughout the album...
He tries to mask his pain, to get drunk and become numb to his feelings. He drinks when he’s lonely, he drinks to forget and to not deal with his problems. He doesn’t accept his flaws, he runs away from them. This is shown on the title track, he...
knows his pain, he’d rather brood over it all than to be numb, but he just can’t stop himself from drowning it all away. He doesn’t want to give up on life and it’s awful feelings, he wants to feel it all rather than feel nothing, but the cycle continues, never ending...
A constant loop of getting drunk and wanting to fix yourself but never getting to that point. It makes him forget the heartbreak, the grief, the hopelessness. But it’s temporary , he will always wake up hungover the next day, no matter how much he tries to forget it all.
He’s free falling now, down the rabbit hole, seeing all the events of his life disappear above him. If he continues down this path of drinking away the pain and remembering it all the next day, he’ll find himself on the other side, the side he’s so afraid of.
He doesn’t want to die, but the way he’s living will slowly chip away at him until he’s nothing. That’s where the message of "Show You The Way” comes into play. Similar to Lava Lamp and Jethro, the track is about death and our mortality. But what differs this song from them...
is the message, instead of dreading death and wasting your life in fear, you should live life moment by moment, second by second, take advantage of the incredible gift of living. He expresses his own difficulties to accept his own eventual fate, but he promises the listener...
that accepting death and the pain of life will make everything so much brighter. He says "a burning light, on the edge of dark.” It can be intense, accepting something as permanent as death, but down the rabbit hole, reality is warped, the world is easier to understand.
All of these interweaving thoughts culminate in the final song, "DUI.” Using the same sample as the opening track, "Drunk” is itself, a loop. It circles back on itself. Calling back to the repeated idea of repeating your problems over and over again that had been sprinkled...
across the album. This is confirmed by the final verse. "I’m so tired. One more glass to go. Where this ends we’ll never know.” Referencing the first tracks use of getting drunk and falling down a rabbit hole, that bottle is empty now, and drinking "One more glass” will start...
the cycle all over again. He understands that he’s like this, that he will forever continue to get drunk and feel it all in the morning. But he accepts this, he wants to feel the pain, he wants to deal with his emotions. He doesn’t come up with any solutions to his...
problems, cause there might not be any. He accepts death, he accepts pain, but like life, eventually, the rabbit hole will end. He’ll hit the bottom. He WILL die someday. But coming to terms with himself and the world will make the landing worth it all along.
"Little Alice fell
D
O
W
N
the hole
bumped her head
and bruised her soul.”
-Lewis Carroll.
D
O
W
N
the hole
bumped her head
and bruised her soul.”
-Lewis Carroll.
