Album Review The Family by Brockhampton:

On their latest project “The Family,” BROCKHAMPTON find themselves reflecting on love, loss, and new beginnings, all themes which greatly reflect the group’s future. As in 2021, BROCKHAMPTON announced the group would be breaking up. “The Family” is Brockhampton’s penultimate album, and was released

BROCKHAMPTON opens the album with the track “Take It Back”, an energetic walk down memory lane. Through an incredibly well selected gospel sample, minimalist production, and a powerful lyrical performance, BROCKHAMPTON reflect on their rise to fame, while grappling with the end of the group.

“RZA” finds BROCKHAMPTON’s leader, Kevin Abstract, alone rapping about a conversation with his mom about keeping the band together. Kevin views the end of the band from a positive perspective, while simultaneously clinging onto hope he could keep the group together.

On “Gold Teeth” Brockhampton abandons the positive nostalgic tone of the first two songs for a much darker introspective track. Delving into how the pressures presented by their past commercial success, and fame affected the group’s relationship. This track’s bare bones production and powerful bassline provide the perfect backdrop for Brockhampton to explore the dark side of success.

“All That” serves as BROCKHAMPTON’s ode to the R&B of the early nineties which has served as a source of inspiration throughout the group’s career. However, the glossy overproduction of the track coupled with the excessively nostalgic lyrics add little to overall narrative found elsewhere on the album.

“(Back From The) Road” finds the group grappling with mixed emotions about life on the road, in a punchy short track which is ultimately overshadowed by the rest of the project.

One of the most unique songs on the album “Southside” is a classic Saturation era BROCKHAMPTON track with powerful bass lines, esoteric production, and phenomenal lyricism. This song stands out as one of the group’s most innovative tracks to date, and is one of the best on this project.

37th: Kevin Abstract gets emotionally vulnerable, yearning for a return to the early days of BROCKHAMPTON where friendship was more important than the art. He laments the past few years of the group, where he feels the purity was corrupted through record contracts, merch deals, and touring. While expressing gratitude for privilege and wealth has afforded him.

The next three songs fall completely short adding nothing to the project, and serving mainly as filler.

On the albums closer aptly titled “BROCKHAMPTON” the group reminisces, and reflects on the growth they have experienced during their almost decade long run.

Overall this project has phenomenal production, songwriting, and is definitely a standout release in 2022. In BROCKHAMPTON’s discography this album is a strong contender for top five albums released by the group over the past ten years. I would personally give this album a 7.6/10, mainly due to the incredibly strong first three quarters of the album.