The boys are back. (ROADRUNNER: NEW LIGHT, NEW MACHINE first reactions/review)
I like Brockhampton. I really like Brockhampton. I was gonna write a completely different blog post for this one. I had it all planned out we were gonna talk about Death Grips and Flying Lotus and a bunch of weird experimental stuff like that, but then I heard that second track with JPEGMAFIA and I knew I had to write about this. You can 100% skip the next two paragraphs if you're already familiar with Brockhampton (or don't care lol) and just want to hear the review.
Now for those who don't know Brockhampton is a hip-hop/R&B boy band from Texas, based in Los Angeles. They met on a Kanye West fan forum called KanyeToThe and started making music together. There are a bunch of members but for the purposes of this review on a few are important. Kevin Abstract is the closest thing the band has to a frontman. He has the biggest solo career and made waves for being an openly gay rapper in the hypermasculine genre that is hip-hop. Dom McLennon is in my opinion the best technical rapper of the group. Merylin Wood is one of the highest energy members of the group and has some of the funniest bars of the group. Joba is the most unpredictable member, one track he could be yelling about breaking your neck, and the next he could be singing in the chorus a falsetto. Matt Champion is a sad white boy, he sings and raps, hes pretty good I like Matt Champion. bearface is barely on the album, he always has a solo song near the end where he sings like a ballad or something. I like bearface.
Now that you know the members we can talk about the hype that surrounds this album. Brockhampton rose to fame after releasing a trilogy of albums in 2017 called the Saturation trilogy and actually put out 3 great projects in a year. The Saturation trilogy struck a perfect blend of experimental and hardcore hip-hop with smooth and softer songs. This helped the boyband score a major label deal with RCA records. It seemed like everything was on the up and up. They had a growing fan base and a major label deal. This is where I have to talk about Ameer. Ameer was a major part of Brockhampton during the saturation trilogy. A close childhood friend of Kevins, Ameer was one of the only members not to be recruited through KanyeToThe. In early 2018, Ameer was accused of sexual abuse and was abruptly kicked out of the group. It also came out that Ameer set up Dom's friend to get robbed. This understandably didn't go over well. Compounding on this the band had to scrap their major-label debut and work on something else. They put out Iridensense. An abrasive loud and their most breakneck pace so far. Yet it felt unfocused. The band was angry and emotional. They briefly quit for a time before releasing their 4th album Ginger in the summer of 2019. This was a drastic change of pace. Almost the inverse of Iridensense, Ginger was a batch of smooth and soft R&B songs which held their biggest hit to date, Sugar. 2020 was a year in which we heard very little from the boys. They took a well-deserved break after 5 albums in 3 years. However, in March 2020 we were told that Brockhampton would release their final two albums in 2021 finally fulfilling their contract with RCA.
Ok. Now that all the context is out of the way let's talk about the music. The album starts out with 2 absolute BANGERS in Buzzcut and Chain On with features from Detroit rapper Danny Brown and Baltimore rapper JPEGMAFIA or Peggy respectively. Buzzcut has one of Kevins best verses and Chain On has Peggy and Dom trading bars over a smooth looping guitar riff. The next track two tracks, Count On Me and Bankroll both have features from A$AP Rockey and Count On Me has Shawn Mendes on the chorus for some reason. Count On Me grew on me but when it was released as the 2nd single I just did not like it. Bankroll is pretty good with some great verses from A$AP Rockey and A$AP Ferg. HOWEVER, after Bankroll, you get the three-track run of The Light, Windows, and I'll Take You On. The Light is one of the most emotional songs that Brockhampton has ever written. It has Joba and Kevin rap about their mental states over a fuzzy guitar beat and Joba's verse about his depression and his father's suicide is without a doubt the most emotional moment on the album. Windows sees the group returning the Saturation formula of having like eight dudes in a multipart six-minute song and it does the best job at replicating that Saturation feel. I'll Take On You is just everything they were doing on Ginger just better. It has crooning vocals from bearface and a Charlie Wilson feature that just so good. Charlie Wilson is a cheat code and will continue to make anything he touches better. Old News is fine. It's probably the worst track on the album. What's The Occasion however is excellent. A building ballad that climaxes with a fuzzy guitar solo and Joba just giving it his all. When I Ball is also just another Brockhampton song. It's got Dom and Matt being Dom and Matt. It's good. Don't Shoot Up The Party is another song that would feel right at home in Saturation. It's got a g-funk synth line and weird disjointed beat that Matt Champion just goes OFF on. Kevin and Joba are also great with everyone on the song talking about social justice which feels extra important at a time like this. Dear Lord is the mandatory bearface song. Its pretty. It sounds like a church song. It's the mandatory bearface song. The closer The Light Part 2 feels like it should be a part of Dear Lord but whatever, it's a good closer. It's got a spacy guitar. Overall this project is amazing. Great beats, great features, a tracklist that flows really well, and despite some god-awful cover art on streaming services it manages to be my favorite release thus far in 2021.
Overall score: 9/10. Best boy band since Backstreet Boys cry your heart out BTS.
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