ALRIGHT BOYS + GIRLS LET’S GET THIS SHIT STARTED WITH A TRACK BY TRACK RE-REACTION!

NEW ORLEANS — PERFECTLY FINE. THAT’S FINE!

The opening track on this album was always going to have quite the herculean task to complete. After getting 3 albums in 6 months, the BROCKHAMPTON fan base was getting ravenous. CONFESSION: I was one of these fans. I was so desperate for new BROCKHAMPTON that I ended up shamefully listening to the leak about 12 hours before the official release. NEW ORLEANS had a lot of hype to live up to. So what did we get?

We got a…pretty great track.

The opening hype from group pretty man-boy, Matt Champion leading directly into an energetic and polished verse from Dom McLennon sets the scene as the glitchy and blown out production from Romil, Jabari, Joba, and bearface bumps and vibrates into existence. I will come back to the production on this album quite a bit, it really carries the album through some rough spots and compliments the strongest moments in a way that feels almost impossible. GREAT JOB BOYS.

This is essentially a posse cut in the vein of SWEET from SATURATION II with every vocalist in the group getting either a verse, chorus or a bridge. This track does a good job of introducing the listener into the world of iridescence, including bearface’s new dual role of both singing beautifully and providing off-kilter bridges that provide a lot of variety and character to every song he appears on.

Jaden Smith also shows up to echo Kevin’s chorus that produced a pretty amazing WHAT THE LIVING HELL moment for me on first listen. For context, Jaden Smith was first seen in affiliation with the boys in this announcement video of their record deal with RCA.

Source: TRL

A now-deleted tweet from Kevin Abstract claimed that FABRIC (the album’s closer) was going to be the open the album and while I’ll get to my full thoughts on FABRIC later; I can safely say that opening with NEW ORLEANS was the right call. It brings a lot of energy, introduces the new glitchy, noisy and grimy production aesthetic and gives us some solid vocal content from all of the boys.

2. THUG LIFE — TRY TO TREAT MAN LIKE BAAAABY

Oh man — that drop at the end of New Orleans into the piano keys and pitched vocals from the London Community Gospel Choir still gets me. bearface gets to play both of his hands here; alternating between his beautiful and soaring sung vocals + his pitch shifted, repeated bridge from NEW ORLEANS. This subtle mirroring pairs the songs together that pays off as the album goes along with pairs of HEAVY/LIGHT tracks up until the classic 3 song come down of SAN MARCOS/TONYA/FABRIC.

This song serves mostly as a slightly fleshed out interlude but does a good job of setting the structure of the album and also gives us an introspective Dom verse that echoes some of the sounds we heard on the back half of the first SATURATION album. I don’t have much more to say but I could definitely use more of bearface belting out those sha-na-na-na-na-sha-ah’s.

3. BERLIN —YOU HUNG YOURSELF, THAT’S NOT MY FAULT, I JUST SUPPLIED THE ROPE, UGHHHH

This song has grown on me quite a bit. My first listen led me to feeling pretty underwhelmed but I have come to kinda love this one. I really like the fuzzy, bassy production on the opening chorus and verses that transitions into the calmed down synth under Dom’s quick and wild second verse and Kevin’s bridge. This segment of the beat returns for Joba’s first real standout verse (on an album full of them) and matches his tone perfectly. His overplayed affect works incredibly well on the overwhelming vibe of BERLIN and contributes pretty heavily to my positive feelings on this track

The outro beat with the crazy vibration and grinding gives a really neat, off putting (in a good way) vibe to an already discordant and disorienting song that I think will play really well live and eventually become a fan favorite.

4. SOMETHING ABOUT HIM — I love him, I love him

This interlude-like track gives off a similar vibe as 2PAC from SATURATION — although it brings in Kevin’s romance with his partner, Jaden Walker:

Kevin is well known for lyrics regarding his sexuality but they often been in a broader context, especially in his work within BROCKHAMPTON. This tracks’ lyrical content definitely feels like it could fit in on a future solo project; not just in the lyrics, but also with its unconventional and loose structure that informs most of his fantastic American Boyfriend.

The unobtrusive production that mostly consists of backing drum track that wouldn’t be out of place on a solid Sound Cloud beat tape and some low-key piano chords and carefully placed synths near the back end of track is definitely pleasant and hits that sweet spot that early 00’s pop, R&B, and hip hop often played in. I dig the vibe but wish the track had a little more meat on it’s bones — especially in an album full of layered and dynamic production.

This track is noteworthy for its tenderness and lyrical content despite it feeling somewhat under-cooked. It would be nice to see this side of Kevin and the other boys in the group expanded into a full length track. As it is though, it works as a nice, sweet come down from the insanity of BERLIN.

5. WHERE THE CASH AT — THERE’S NOT A SOUL IN HERE

MERLYN! MATT CHAMPION!

Although I generally find the first set of songs on iridescence to be the weakest aspect of the project, this song is a real standout and where I think the album goes from good to GREAT. The use of layered vocals (THERE’S NOT A SOUL IN HERE!) to create a sense of unease makes the track feel downright dirty. Merlyn’s voice is highlighted to great effect and the wildcard quality that he brings to the group is shoved into the spotlight. He’s given the most amount of performance time here since FLIP MO from ALL-AMERICAN TRASH — the progression in his delivery and writing is both obvious and satisfying as a long time fan.

The dissonance of it appearing right after SOMETHING ABOUT HIM is incredible and the alternating mood of the track list is showcased once again. The effect that this creates is disorienting and uncomfortable; a far cry from a lot of the boy’s previous material which has lead to some fans and newcomers to be put off from the album. Given some time, this aspect of the album is likely to become a strength as it contributes great depth and replay value.

Oh I also wanted to talk about Matt Champion real quick.

Matt has an amazing verse that is partially reassembled from a track from PUPPY that ended up getting shelved:

My first listen of Matt’s verse on this track and his others on this album (excluding TAPE) felt somewhat off. Matt has a very mellow and mumbly vocal performance on a lot of the tracks on iridescence and it doesn’t seem like there was an effort to move him more to the front of the mix — causing him to not leave too much of an impression on first listen. HOWEVER on repeat listens, his verses on NEW ORLEANS, BERLIN, WHERE THE CASH AT, DISTRICT, TAPE, VIVID and his singing on SAN MARCOS are incredible standout moments that elevate the project as a whole, especially on repeat listens. I also don’t find as much issue with the mixing — it may have been my ear getting used to hearing Matt on these types of beats. Either way, good shit.

Overall WHERE THE CASH AT is a great piece of skittering, paranoid hip-hop and also a great argument for a Merlyn Wood/Matt Champion project.

6. WEIGHT— I don’t wanna waste no more time/I’m ready to go

Kevin presence can be felt all over iridescence — he has a writing credit on every track outside of LOOPHOLE (an interlude) and J’OUVERT (with production lead by Jabari, heavily influenced by his Grenadian roots)— but his vocal contributions on this tape tend to slip into the background; often shrouded by auto tune and pitch shifting. This seems to be a conscious decision as it also has been on all of the other BROCKHAMPTON projects. Kevin seemingly created BROCKHAMPTON with the intent of showcasing voices that have been suppressed, voices that otherwise would have never been heard. His greatest strength is as a creative director, taking a back seat and allowing people that he has genuine love for execute on a combined vision.

Kevin is also my favorite vocalist in BROCKHAMPTON. His verses on JUNKY, STAR, GUMMY, JOHNNY, and STUPID are band-wide standouts without even taking into account the amount of stupid catchy hooks that he dropped on the SATURATION trilogy. He doesn’t have a lot of shining moments on iridescence but that seems like a feature and not a glitch.

HOWWWEEEVVVERR

His verse on WEIGHT is a career best. The verse can be split in half between the spoken word delivery that builds up with a flurry of beautiful strings and piano backing his incredibly personal admissions, ending in a proclamation that he “ain’t done”. The verse picks up momentum with new elements of the beat being added with his vocal melody becoming more obvious with a hint of voice modulation until it hits the bridge that confirms that he is now “ready to go”. There is a lot to unpack in his lyrics on this cut; including mentions of self harm, the internal tension of sexual confusion, the destructive power of fame, and the shame that comes from admitting that you still aren’t happy despite your success. It’s hard to stay focused on the verse, even on one this good once the breakdown occurs at the completion of the bridge.

We then get hit by a breakbeat with a multilayered vocal scratch completed on same j37 that The Beatles used on Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band that leads to a wonderfully charismatic verse from Joba (the vocal effect at the end of his verse is WILD) which is then followed by a passionate and personal verse from Dom that details both a conversation with his mother and an internal monologue — digging into his thoughts on fame, his feelings about unsolicited criticism and betrayal coming from narcissistic loved ones.

I love the ending chorus and outro from Joba that follows the incredible Tune Up! sample — it’s simultaneously, beautiful, grimy and paranoia-inducing, adding a sense of unease to a very pretty and uplifting cut. Absolutely love this one and it will easily find its place in my top 5 BROCKHAMPTON songs.

7. DISTRICT — LET ME FIND THE WAY OUT OF THIS BITCH

There are a lot of complaints about iridescence lacking catchy hooks and uh…

I DISAGREE.

Source: u/asoneprod on the BROCKHAMPTON subreddit

District has one of my favorite BROCKHAMPTON hooks, period. The rearranged refrain at the end with the layered samples are also a nice addition that makes the chorus more dynamic and sticky.

Outside of the hook, Joba and bearface absolutely steal this song with their brief, idiosyncratic verses. These verses further the idea that materialism has infected the group but has not gone a long way towards healing their mental states.

The production on this one is credited to Romil, Joba, bearface and Jabari — and you can feel the collaboration with the opening vocal sample being re-purposed in the breakdown of the hook, the rumbling bass, the jittery synth and laser scratches being deployed throughout the song. The sampling of Kevin’s ad libs, the sirens (BOOGIE throwback!), the skittering high hats and the calm pitched vocals in the back of bearface’s high energy outro make the song feel incredibly busy but somehow all of the elements make sense together. The song still has a clear structure and this song is a great example of how iridescence plays with the standard hip-hop song construction that made the SATURATION trilogy so solid and definitely calls back to the work done on American Boyfriend and ALL-AMERICAN TRASH.

I’m a huge fan of this track and am having a hard time covering everything I like about it so I might actually revisit this one in a future post.

8. LOOPHOLE — See, that goes to show, maybe they wasn’t never really my friends.

This is my favorite BROCKHAMPTON interlude. It entirely consists of a clip from a 2016 interview featuring Cam’ron and DJ Whoo Kid, Cam’ron and vibrant string arrangement. During the snippet, Cam’ron discusses how he was taken advantage of by people close to him while coming up in the hip-hop industry. The pairing of his statements with a beautiful string arrangement by Nicole Garcia creates an almost menacing statement from the members of BROCKHAMPTON — admitting that they made a mistake with the RCA deal while calling out their friends in the music business that didn’t advise them to watch out for their best interests.

It’s a bold statement and leads very well into the opening breaths on TAPE.

9. TAPE — Lose you in crowds/ I see now, 14/ I see ’em all inside of me now

TAPE has a sense of immediacy that’s hard not to connect with. The distance between the author and the audience on this track feels very narrow — even the production, mostly featuring rearranged sample of Radiohead’s Videotape, rumbles and buckles with it’s syncopated beat in your eardrums like it’s always lived there.

The vocals kick off with a sharp inhale from Kevin Abstract as he handles the first verse and bridge — once again discussing the dissonance that exists between his lyrics and his relationship with his parents, his dreams of fame versus reality, realizing that his self-esteem is internal and can’t be fixed by external validation and his extreme distaste for writers and journalists.

Every vocalist on the track rides the syncopation expertly but Matt’s verse is the big stand out here. The second half of his verse perfectly wraps around the drums and includes ingenious, efficient use of repetitive and internal rhyming.

I don’t even want to get into the beat switch during Dom’s absolute monster of a verse at the end. This is is a hell of a track and standout in an album full of them.

10. J’OUVERT — Should have known better, wish that I was better/

At dealing with the fame and you fake motherfuckers/

Guess I’m too real

Joba goes off. Merlyn goes soft.

Absolutely love the EXCUUUUSE ME sample as well as the synthetic/traditional instrumental mix in the backing track. This was a great choice for the single as it perfectly represents the grimy, glitchy, dark half of the record. This one is probably the best of that bunch and it also has a great verse from Matt at the beginning so it’s hard to complain.

The thunderous, buzzing beat with the monotonous kick drum perfectly glides under Joba’s standout verse in which he screams like a maniac in just about the best way possible. It’s hard for me to overstate how much I love Joba’s contributions to this record as well as on SATURATION III. He adds so much vocal diversity and has a great intuition for which of his personalities/styles will fit best for each of his appearances.

Also bearface is back at it with some amazing ad libs — ZIM ZIM ZIM OUT THE BIM.

Also look at the music video.

Source: Youtube

It’s terrifying.

11. HONEY — Tuggin’ on my pinky ring, smelling like chrysanthemum/

I just want that, I just want that, I just want that, I just want that

Yes, my favorite part of HONEY is the BUMP sample. I ! want ! more ! pitched ! down ! Matt ! Champion!

Also this whole song is absolutely groovy. It feels like the sister song to DISTRICT as it is sample heavy (check that Beyoncé sample), full of sirens and is incredibly busy. The busy aspect of HONEY, however, is used to an incredibly euphoric effect and brings the boys into completely new territory.

Dom comes in like he’s on a Gorillaz beat and the song quickly breaks down from a bop into a groove with the Beyoncé sample hugging Kevin’s transition into the ending BUMP sampled bridge. I’m listening to it right now and I still can’t believe how well this outro works. Honey will definitely be in the same conversation as BLEACH when it comes to the more mellow BROCKHAMPTON songs and I am very excited to see it live (if they ever come back to Tampa that is).

12. VIVID — It’s elementary when all you speak is rudimentary/

Paradiddles hidden in riddles vapid and accessory

WOW DOM. Dom’s verse on this is easily one of his strongest. The internal rhyme schemes on the lyrics listed above are incredible and are delivered with a buttery smooth flow before transitioning into a seemingly Die Antwoord inspired pitched up verse from bearface — the king of pitch shifted rapping on iridescence.

Not a lot more to say, this is a solid agressive cut with a great ad lib refrain and an amazing Dom verse. It’s grown on me a lot on revisit and I’m glad it sits right before the amazing 3 song ending run. Speaking of.

13. SAN MARCOS — I know that I’m selfish, do my best to be selfless/

I know that I’m changing, I know that I’m changing

Source: Youtube

BROCKHAMPTONS country song. Seriously listen to that twang in the closing minute — it sounds like they got a gosh dang fiddle in the mix. It’s fitting as this song is a tribute to the bands beginnings in San Marcos, Texas.

SAN MARCOS feels like an experiment of sorts — taking a song meant as a bearface closer and involving more of the band’s hip-hop centric vocalists to see what kind of results ensue. I’d say it’s a pretty massive success. It captures the vibe that their final tracks usually give off(still surprised this wasn’t in FABRIC’s place) while giving more insight into the other members of the group.

Joba’s admission of suicidal thoughts is especially moving — as it seems like saying it is almost a relief; no longer hiding it behind half hearted declarations of unhappiness. There is a sense of calmness that inhabits his verse that transitions wonderfully into the beautiful chorus lead outro which is sure to be a staple closer at every BROCKHAMPTON show until they retire.

Absolutely love it — MWAH.

14. TONYA — There’s no money on my mind/But my money or my mind/What’s the first to fall?/I never wanted this shit, yeah

Source: Youtube

I’ve heard this song so many times but I am just now realizing how blatant bearface’s opening verse is in referring to the exit of Ameer Van. The reference to the “Harvard floor” (referring to the show they played at Boston Calling without Ameer) is what made it click that he was talking about the group and not about some faceless lover that is usually the subject of bearface’s lyrics.

And then the rest of the song becomes even more blatant. Kevin is pretty direct in his verse as well with the I, Tonya references bringing in the idea of muddled fame — negative attention being stapled to your chest regardless of your actual involvement.

Anyways, the song is gorgeous. It has my favorite bearface verse on the album, perfectly coupling his newfound rhythmic singing with his beautiful tone and introspective lyrics. The serpentwithfeet feature is also lovely(seriously go check out his debut, soil). I don’t really have anything negative to say aside from Meryln not pronouncing SOWAHH the same as he did in the Fallon performance.

One of their best, period.

15. FABRIC — You don’t understand why I can’t get up and shout/

I keep tellin’ ya

Okay so, FABRIC. This was supposed to be the opener and I can see it (although I believe NEW ORLEANS fit the beginning section of the album better). It functions similarly to TEAM in that it segues into another album (supposedly) and that it is a bit of a stylistic experiment. The closing minute features incredibly minimal production, with increasingly pounding and rumbling drums that glide around Kevin’s incredibly sticky declaration that his fans don’t understand why he can’t express himself the same way that he used to.

The use of the opening female vocal sample, the minimal production, the constantly shifting synth chords, the clashing verses that seem like they are all pulled out of separate songs, the lack of consistent melody, the whispered Merlyn verse, the Disney/Broadway inspired and exaggerated bridge from Joba, the threatening, growled rap from bearface; this is all incredibly unnerving stuff. I still don’t know if I like it as a song on it’s own but its a great closer to the album.

Also that bit at the end felt like a post-credits sequence and I’m all here from the BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES cinematic universe.