BROCKHAMPTON - Iridescence

BROCKHAMPTON
Iridescence
2018
Spotify

It always felt like an interesting idea to strip BROCKHAPMTON of their braggadocios behavior and hear them actually reflect on some real shit that is going on in their lives. This new album iridescence tackles that. Recorded over 10 days at Abbey Road in London this new album has the rap crew starting to realize that they might be bigger than being able to sell out the occasional small club. BROCKHAPMTON to their credit have never felt like they deserved anything, or even were trying to be famous at all. They still have that vibe, that they are going to be wild and vibrant regardless of what outside pressures are on them, but they feel more grown up here. The production still has that bass that will destroy your speakers, but peppered throughout this record are these sweet songs that actually dive into what is going on in their lives. It is much more about the new world of fame they are entering into rather than the wild world of hip hop obscurity in which they have always existed. Fame means people are listening now, and not just your fans, but people looking to take you down as well. It likely gives you this sense of responsibility to ensure that the way your voice is being heard is how you want it to be hear. With hip hop like this, that is to say word heavy hip hop, a couple listens feel like not enough to truly mine all the ideas that are going on, but even on a first listen of iridescence  the message comes through clearly.

 BROCKHAMPTON really use their song lengths well, and have done throughout their career. Time and space seem to met away when you are listening to BROCKHAMPTON and that vibe continues on this record as well. Some songs are thirty seconds while others almost make it to five minutes. With a crew this big you would expect each track to have to feature a bunch of the guys, but that never seems to be an issue. The boys bounce in and out of tracks nimbly dropping a few bars and moving on, to the point where unless your ear is acutely tuned you can't really tell who is saying what. "SAN MARCOS" is this emotionally charged dare I say "ballad" that pulls at   your heartstrings showing this totally new dimension of the band, almost BROCKHAMPTON reimagined. "TONYA" another slow song doesn't land quite as gracefully, but this shift feels like BROCKHAMPTON are growing up and believing in their audience to grow right with them. It's a really special album from a group who continue to prove themselves time and time again.

8.6 out of 10