BROCKHAMPTON - GINGER

"But I couldn't hide, you swear and you cry
You see threat and violence, they fall under mine
Perfect reason why we'll bring them to life
Always chasing a ride, but aren't you mine?"

Not even a year after the release of their last studio album, the American East Coast rap group BROCKHAMPTON have dropped their newest project GINGER, after the release of a few tracks during the past month. I have personally loved everything this band has released so far. The Saturation Trilogy in 2017 was one of the most prolific and consistent projects from any group of the last few years, with each album proving to be just as incredible as the last. It was like lightning in a bottle.

However in 2018, the band was forced to make a huge decision in kicking out one of their core members after a series of sexual assault allegations, which resulted in the subsequent scrapping of their 4th album, PUPPY, only a month before it was scheduled to release. The band did however still drop an album in 2018, with Iridescence being released on the 21st of September. Iridescence was a great album, and proved that despite how difficult the past few months had been for the band, they were still able to release a project that maturely handled the situation, as well as presented some of their best work.

Unfortunately, GINGER manages to feel like the least essential project from BROCKHAMPTON. The Saturation trilogy showcased their abilities with some of the most interesting and varied hip-hop albums of the last few years, and Iridescence was an extremely important moment of growth for the band after the loss of a core member. GINGER isnt necessarily a step in the wrong direction after Iridescence, but it certainly feels like a step backward.

Despite what I’ve just said, GINGER starts off extremely strong. The opening track NO HALO is undoubtedly one of the band’s best tracks, with contributions from all 6 of the band’s core members. The instrumentation is beautiful, and the lyrics are emotional with a great flow. In fact, the whole first half of this album for the most part is pretty good. I feel as there is a clear musical consistency for this first half. HEAVEN BELONGS TO YOU foreshadows IF YOU PRAY RIGHT really well, and NO HALO, SUGAR, and BOY BYE all carry the same acoustic style, which adds a coherence to the first half of the album which gets completely lost in the second half.

"And it's not my fault, and it's not my problem anymore
That's just where you stand
That's just who you are
That's your cross to bear
You could talk to God
I don't wanna hear, motherfucker"

As soon as DEARLY DEPARTED ends, with one of the most emotional verses on the entire record from Dom, the transition into the next track I BEEN BORN AGAIN immediately feels like the first jarring moment on the album. I wasn’t particularly blown away with this track as the leading single released for GINGER, but in the context of the album, I’m even less impressed by it. Its not a bad song, but it feels completely out of place, and isn’t particularly great either lyrically or instrumentally. From here my opinion of the album diminishes quite a fair bit. The last five tracks here have some great moments, but are overall honestly some of BROCKHAMPTON’s most uninteresting tracks released to date.

For Instance, BIG BOY has a pretty good verse from Joba, but the chorus by Kevin is one of the band’s weakest refrains. Similarly, there’s a great verse by Merlyn on LOVE ME FOR LIFE, but the rest of the song is extremely unmemorable. The Saturation trilogy had almost 50 tracks between it, so there are obviously some unmemorable parts here and there, however these moments are completely overshadowed by how many amazing moments there were between the three albums. HEAT, GOLD, MILK, FACE, GUMMY, QUEER, TOKYO, SWEET, SUMMER, BOOGIE, BLEACH, SISTER/NATION, and TEAM to name only a few, are some of the most memorable songs from 2017 for me. In comparison, even with the relatively decent first half of GINGER, there are less than a handful of tracks that have actually stood out to me at all.

GINGER is by no means a bad album, but it is definitely BROCKHAMPTON’s weakest release to date. It lacks the coherence and the consistency of SATURATION I, II and III, and doesn’t have the same level of personal importance for the band as Iridescence. There are some amazing moments on this project, but unfortunately, they are overshadowed by the abundance of mediocre moments, rather than vice versa. BROCKHAMPTON still have great musical variety and a rich personality between the 6 core members, which I am extremely excited to see shine in the upcoming years, but unfortunately GINGER feels like a slight misstep in their discography.

6/10