Brockhampton, an American hip-hop boy band consisting of 13 members, released their new album, “ROADRUNNER: NEW LIGHT, NEW MACHINE”, on April 9th.

Overview

According to the band, this is the first of two albums that will be released in 2021, and after that, they will be done releasing for good. Of course, fans are wary of trusting these claims because the band has said similar things before and did not follow through with it.

Although generally giving off an energetic, scattered vibe, every note of this album is ingrained with great melancholy and meaning. “ROADRUNNER” takes influence from the group’s struggles and morphs them into this revealing creation while conveying hopefulness through all of it. In addition to touching on the suicide of group member Joba’s father, this album talks about issues of internalized racism and paranoia, as well as isolation and identity. 

Creativity in this album is high due to the talented outsiders that took part in this album including Danny Brown, JPEGMAFIA, Charlie Wilson, A$AP Ferg, and A$AP Rocky. Brockhampton typically doesn’t do this type of thing, but at least for this album, it worked very well for them. 

The Tracklist

The album starts off with ‘BUZZCUT’ featuring Danny Brown. It’s a little crazy and all over the place, but I do have to give it credit for pulling me in right away. The two verses done by Kevin Abstract and Danny Brown melt together beautifully. This song is nothing but an exhilarating beginning to a unique album. 

‘CHAIN ON’ furthered my expectations, but then ‘COUNT ON ME’ let me down. It struggled with tone as one verse was very deep and aggressive, while the other was light-hearted and gleeful. In addition, ‘I’LL TAKE YOU ON’ was an unfortunate miss. There’s not much to say for this one except for the fact that it was just a simple pop song that failed to follow the depth of the rest of the album. 

Songs ‘WINDOWS’, ‘WHEN I BALL’, and ‘THE LIGHT PT. II’ captivated me, and if anything, I recommend that you give those a listen. Of course, there are some flaws in this album, but it’s certainly a well-done album for the most part. 

Verdict

In all, this album does what I assume it intended to do, which was to be honest and meaningful, while also remaining accessible. Brockhampton fan or not, I strongly suggest that you check out this album and be on the lookout for their next album coming this year.