Welp, it's here give or take a year after the group's last project "iridescence" an album that has been described by many people, including myself as a beautiful mess, all over the place, but sonically stunning, still crazy to me that a song like "TONYA" can be on the same album as a song like "DISTRICT" or "NEW ORLEANS", but it managed to prove that even without one of their core members, they could still mature as artists and go further in their music than they ever had before (in my opinion, artistically speaking "iridescence" was their most developed album at the time of its release, even though it isn't my favourite BROCKHAMPTON album). The group takes that artistic expression to the next level on "GINGER", a mysterious and shadowed record with outstanding performances from both permanent members of the group and frequent collaborators such as Ryan Beatty and Deb Never. Honestly after the singles I still wasn't sure what to expect from the album, they were all so different, from songs having somewhat "regular" or maybe even "poppy" structures like "NO HALO" to songs with an absence of real structure like "IF YOU PRAY RIGHT" which starts somewhat normally with a "verse->chorus->post chorus->verse" structure and so on but then has this bridge after Joba's verse that leads into an outro from Kevin Abstract over a beat that is completely different from what we hear on the rest of the song. But the boys didn't disappoint, GINGER is a beautifully crafted 12 song record that tells us where they're at in life, their problems, and how they're trying to deal with them, which seems to be religion, something that comes up rather often on the album in lyrics but in song titles as well, such as "ST. PERCY", an undeniable banger but a reference to the name of a church, "HEAVEN BELONGS TO YOU" which features British rapper slowthai, "IF YOU PRAY RIGHT" which I previously mentioned and "I BEEN BORN AGAIN" which I'll cover more in detail when I cover my favourite songs on the album, because it's a great song.
Highlights off GINGER:
-"NO HALO", my favourite of the singles and a surprising intro to the album given the first song pattern on BROCKHAMPTON records has usually been absolute hitters, such as "HEAT", "BOOGIE" and "NEW ORLEANS" is a beautiful song with some instantly recognizable guitar production from one of their permanent producers, Jabari Manwa, who he himself called something he'd hear down in the Caribbean and yeah that vibe is definitely there, Matt has an outstanding verse and Deb Never and Merlyn Wood serve up a great chorus which make the song for me.
-"SUGAR", this song although only having been out about a week is extremely nostalgia inducing, like memories I've never had, pop up in my head as if I had made those memories to this song, not sure how they achieve that but they killed it. This song is pretty easily comparable to songs they've previously made like "BLEACH" off "SATURATION III", it even includes the same record scratch sample which makes me think the that similarity may have been done on purpose. Like on BLEACH, Ryan Beatty gives us an amazing, and I mean AMAZING chorus, and is finished with another very similar to BLEACH outdo from Kevin where even the word "passport" is included... maybe this is just "BLEACH 2", but I don't have a problem with that.
-"BOY BYE", this is my second favourite single off the album, again this song has some Caribbean charm to it, but way more upbeat and energetic than the instrumental on "NO HALO", I love Dom's performance on here as well as Kevin's, they bring the energy the instrumental deserved and make the song an easy one to just throw on when you need a boost.
-"IF YOU PRAY RIGHT" is a banger, but a song I just... hated at first. The horns just felt annoying to me on the first few listens and I just sat there thinking... what the hell were they thinking. But I came around to it and now I'm pretty sure it's one of my favourites, Everyone gives stellar performances especially from Dom and Kevin. But to be honest I'm still not too hot on Kevin's outro, I think it's an interesting switch up but I'm not are it was really needed here, I never skip it though, its not like it's gross.
-"DEARLY DEPARTED", first off that instrumental is so crisp, the guitar is beautiful and raw and emotional, it just sounds great. I don't really care for Kevin's verse, it comes off a little last minute and could've used some tweaking as well as some more energy. BUT, Matt and Dom, wow. Matt's verse is great talks about struggles in his life and where he is now. But the standout verse comes from Dom, he brings up the Ameer situation and pretty much puts in the form of a verse a tweet he posted a while back around the time that Ameer was kicked out of the group, and the pain Ameer caused him. I have massive respect for Dom for being able to put himself out there like this, he really stands out on this project, something I was really hoping for, I didn't think we got enough of him on "iridescence".
-"I BEEN BORN AGAIN" is an odd little songs, starts off with some ASMR from everyones favourite singer, bearface. The song contains my favourite verse from Kevin off this album, it's really strong when it comes to imagery and sounds really good over the beat, he sounds like he's really in control. Merlyn, Joba and Matt also have some fantastic verses on the song with so much energy and charisma you just can't help but enjoy it.
-"LOVE ME FOR LIFE", this is without a doubt my favourite song on the record, although again I'm kind of disappointed with Kevin's verse he just sounds unenthusiastic and tired, maybe thats what he was going for but who knows. I love Joba's sing song verse he really plays with the melody of the song and gives a great performance. But then jumps in the most unlikely duo within the 6 vocalists, Merlyn and bearface, Merlyn comes out of nowhere with so much energy and absolutely murders his verse and it then it suddenly contrasts with bearface's beautiful outro, like wow they really did that.
Anyways, those are my favourites, there are a couple songs on here I just don't love, those being "BIG BOY" and "GINGER", although I won't skip GINGER, BIG BOY just doesn't touch me at all its very meh, extremely average. This album is extremely strong, and emotionally potent, some of the boys' best work without a doubt. BROCKHAMPTON's "GINGER" is a solid 8-8.5/10.