BROCKHAMPTON'S "ROADRUNNER: NEW LIGHT, NEW MACHINE"

 

What is up you beautiful people, I hope you are all having a great weekend! FINALLY, WE GET SOME NEW MUSIC! After this whole hiatus period from COVID, I’m actually starting to see some artists drop new music. However, I didn’t even have BROCKHAMPTON in mind when I was thinking about who would start dropping music again and boy am I not disappointed. I actually enjoyed their last project, “GINGER” quite a bit as it took a softer turn towards the attitude the group had after their falling out with ex-member Ameer Van and how individuals in the group were starting to look towards religion for answers. From that we come to this new project, “ROADRUNNER: NEW LIGHT, NEW MACHINE” and boy do we get some goodness out of this.

                Upon starting the album, I was greeted with quite a few features from Danny Brown, JPEGMAFIA, A$AP ROCKY, and A$AP FERG. While I did enjoy these guests, I didn’t really get a feel for what direction this album was trying to take. It was until I got to the song “The Light”, did I get an idea of what this album was going for. In this song, we hear member Joba talk about his experiences during quarantine and how he had to deal with his father’s suicide in that duration of time. He opens his heart out in this song, and he does a great job in communicating the blender of emotions that come from a traumatic event like that and how he had to balance his personal life with the temptations of musical fame around him constantly. The chorus does a great job in communicating this with him singing, “For the record, I can fly around the world, absorbing light something’s missin’ deep inside the light.” Kevin Abstract also delivers a verse that talks about his experience with his sexuality and how it creates confusion in his life as he faces distaste from important figures like his mom. From this song, I felt a similar tone from ‘GINGER’, but this song was much more raw in how the lyrics were delivered. This rawness was furthered in the song “WINDOWS” as we have more members of BROCKHAMPTON opening up about their issues. I personally enjoyed Dom McLennon’s verse in this song because the delivery of his lyrics were great, and it added more empathy to the overall song than any other member’s verse in my opinion. Joba does add some nice lyrics in this song as well as he questions the innocence of the world and forces the question of whether or not our society was plagued before COVID-19 even came.

                The theme from Joba’s verse is furthered in the song “WHAT’S THE OCCASION” as members Matt Champion and Joba talk about navigating through life during a very dark moment filled with loneliness and confusion. By this point in the album, I admit I was very impressed by Joba. His ability to use his wordplay to communicate his emotions at this point of time are impressive and I felt so close to him as I kept listening to more and more of this project. Another member that I was impressed by was Dom McLennon as I heard his verse in the next song “WHEN I BALL”. This song is about childhood memories and Dom’s recollection of growing up in a black community with his mother was translated perfectly in his verse. His lines on growing up wondering where his uncles were during “vacation” and how his mother had to give him the talk on how he should behave around the police made me feel a lot of empathy. Continuing the line of tracks, the songs “DEAR LORD” and “THE LIGHT PT. II” were nice add-ons as the first track showcases the comradery between these members of BROCKHAMPTON and the second tracks giving further insight on Joba’s journey and Kevin’s experience with finding religion.

                I said earlier in this post that I had trouble looking at the direction the album was taking and upon listening to all of the songs did I realize I was looking at this the wrong way. There wasn’t a concept to grab as BROCKHAMPTON wasn’t trying to create any kind of experience. Rather, these members grouped together their experiences from these past couple of months to show their audience how much they’re changed and grown. Some of these songs sound out of place but this is the kind of atmosphere that COVID created, a world of randomness and chaos. While all members of BROCKHAMPTON showed change, I was most impressed again by Joba, Kevin Abstract, and Dom Mclennon. Their performances on this album was noteworthy, and I look forward to hearing more from them. Overall, I would rate this project a 7/10 as it didn’t do anything extraordinary but rather offers a time capsule for the times we live in.

 

IMPORTANT: none of the music discussed in this blog post are mine and are owned respectively by their artists and music labels

 

FAVORITE SONGS: BUZZCUT, CHAIN ON, BANKROLL, THE LIGHT, WINDOWS, I’LL TAKE YOU ON, WHEN I BALL, DON’T SHOOT UP THE PARTY