Music Reviews

The best boyband since One Direction is back, better then ever – if you’ve been living under a rock for the past few years, BROCKHAMPTON is an universally aclaimed hip hop collective from Texas that has made their fame of off the currently-sitting-at-legendary-status „SATURATION mixtapes“. Ever since the unfortunate departure of the past member of the band Ameer Vann BROCKHAMPTON were trying their best to find their voice again, with the harsh and abrasive sounds of „iridescence“ or with the more intimate and delicate sounds of „GINGER“. Both these records showcased a very different approach for BROCKHAMPTON and now after a 2 year hiatus, I can safely say that they menaged to strike the perfect balance between these two.

The album kicks off with the raging banger that is „BUZZCUTTER“ featuring the man himself Danny Brown, which honestly speaks for itself – the song just speaks for itself. The follow-up „CHAIN ON“ is a song we did get a slight taste of previously, but now in the context of the album, it sounds much more complete – the sound is heavy, JPEGMAFIA does his thing and even though the beat might get a little tiring after three minutes of just that, I think what really sells this track is the performances – everyone on here just absolutely kills their part. Now the track „COUNT ON ME“ is probably my least favorite cut here – doesn’t mean it’s bad or anything, it’s just that comparing this to the rest of the album, it has the weakest performance out of any song on here – the whistle driven beat sounds intresting at first, but I just feel like they don’t do much with it, after a while it just kind of gets in the background – the vocal melodies are a nice touch, though really nothing extraordinary, just an okay tune. Now from here thing get a little bit more… All over the place. The next song „BANKROLL“ is another banger featuring ASAP Rocky and ASAP Ferg, whose both contribrutions to the song are undeniable – the beat is very mellow whichin a weird way compliments the more agressive delivery on this song. Now „THE LIGHT“ is easily the biggest emotional gutpunch out of anything here – for once the instrumentation itself is just heavy, dark, guittar-driven and it just absolutely slaps, the beat is just nasty – but thst itself doesn’t make this song good, what really sells this one are the lyrics and they are… Off the chains if you will. Joba talks about his expirience with his father’s suicide in a really open and brutal way, it’s really just too much. The song „WINDOWS“ being the longest song on here in 6 minutes actually managed to keep my attention throughout the whole thing (mainly because it’s placed right after THE LIGHT, but that’s besides the point) and once again, it’s a killer track – from here on though, the song start to branch out into more experimental territory. The song „TAKE YOU ON“ is just this earhug of a song, just 4 minutes of pure musical bliss – it’s really sweet, it’s dancable, it’s groovy and it has Charlie Wilson on it, really the whole package. „OLD NEWS“ follows a similar formula, except this time it goes into more hip/hop driven direction, not much to say about this one to be honest, it works just fine. „WHAT’S THE OCCSASION?“ however is a grand rock-driven tune with just and amazing last chorus where all the instruments just go absolutely nuts, it’s super catchy, super anthemic, one could even say larger than life, definetly one of my favorites here. „WHEN I BALL“ comes again with this more hip-hop sound majority of this album is going for, but this time it’s more light-hearted – there are string that go throughout the whole song, little piano passages that add a nice flavour to the track, it’s just really easy-going, down to earth and fun to listen. Now the next track „DON’T SHOOT UP THE PARTY“ is only one of those things and that is fun as hell to listen to – this song is an absolute banger, not only on this album, but one of the best ones the group has ever put together. Everything about this song just works, from the slow yet intense build up to the explosion into that west-coast beat that just absolutely slays to the dark yet again dancable bridge towards the end of the track – everyone here does their thing and they even get space for the instrumentation itself to shine, it just through and through works. Now the ending of this album is rather depressing, you have the minimal yet absolutely gorgeous interlude „DEAR LORD“ where all the band members just pray for Joba’s father it’s a really powerfull moment which lead beautifully into the last and final track „THE LIGHT PT. II“ and to be honest, the title kind of says it all – this is Joba saying goodbye to his father in the most heart-wrenching yet powerful way possible, I couldn’t imagine a world where this isn’t the closing track. The instrumenation surrounding it also is just so somber, so vivid, so just gentle and sweet, it’s enough to make full grown man cry.

So yeah, this has been the latest installment in BROCKHAMPTON’s discogrpahy, pretty neat one at that. Honestly I think this is the group just perfecting the blend of different sound they were attempting for the past few years and if there is one word I would describe this album with, it’s maturity, they’ve really come a long way and I can’t wait to see where they go next.

Strong 8/10