The Family, BROCKHAMPTON (6/10)

Today (11/17/22) BROCKHAMPTON released their final album (although they also announced a surprise drop tonight at midnight of a new album of shelved recordings from 2021 sessions), "The Family." While it was put out under the name BROCKHAMPTON, however, it was only created by Kevin Abstract, Bearface, and Romil Hemnani. While the absence of other members is conspicuously present in the sound, it's still a solid album that attempts to find some closure in the end of the band (in the last song, Kevin directly addresses a bunch of the band members). Many of the lyrics throughout the album speak to the band's rise to fame and the chaos and in-fighting that came as a result. It's heartfelt and quite earnest. In terms of the actual sound, this album is quite different from most of BROCKHAMPTON's previous releases. Instead of hard, clashing rap, it's much more R&B and honestly a lot of it feels like old Kanye with samples of gospel and soul and jazz. I attribute a lot of this to the absence of many of the bandmates, and you can definitely feel that Abstract kind of directed the sound because of the r&b feel. I didn't like it as much as the old stuff, but I think that makes sense since much of the reason I love old BROCKHAMPTON are the members besides Kevin Abstract (Merlyn Woods, Jabari Manwa, Joba, Dom McLennon, Matt Champion, etc.) - not that I don't think Abstract is extremely talented, but what made BROCKHAMPTON so good was the arrangement of so many different vocalists with their own idiosyncrasies. Anyways, it's a very bittersweet album and made me pretty nostalgic and sad. Favorite tracks: Any Way You Want Me, Good Time, The Ending, Prayer