Following their miraculous Saturation trilogy run from the span of June to December in 2017, it seemed like nothing could stop the momentum that LA based boy-band/rap group BROCKHAMPTON had coming into 2018. Their schedule for the year was already coming together strongly: a Coachella performance in April, their late night television debut on Jimmy Fallon in June, and a new album promised sometime in the summer named PUPPY. Plus, after Saturation III, they signed to RCA Records, meaning their next album could finally have the big budget they never had. However, things went completely off track when in May, member Ameer Vann, was accused of sexual assault and verbal abuse by a former girlfriend. This shook up EVERYTHING the band had planned, and they eventually made the decision to kick Ameer Vann out of the group. This decision essentially split the BROCKHAMPTON fanbase (and the group itself) in a way that it would never really recover from. Some believed Ameer’s apology was enough and they should have let him stay, while others believed the decision was for the best.
Speeding up a bit, PUPPY was obviously canceled and so the group scrambled to make a new album without one of their star members. They flew out to Hawaii in the late summer to work on an album titled the best years of our lives, which also never came to fruition. Finally in September 2018, they booked 2 weeks of sessions at the historic Abbey Road studios in England to cobble together their messy, noisy, sad, chaotic 4th studio album iridescence, which was released the day before summer’s end on September 21st.
Members of BROCKHAMPTON. From left to right, back to front: Dom McLennon, Jabari Manwa, Joba, Merlyn Wood, Kevin Abstract, Matt Champion, and bearface.
BROCKHAMPTON had always been a somewhat experimental group, all the way back from the original Saturation, but on iridescence, they turned that notch way up. Almost every song has something a little wonky about it, whether it be the intro track "NEW ORLEANS’" kooky little computer-sounding synth lead playing the entire time, "BERLIN’s" sampling of a car revving its engine every time the bass hits, "TAPE’s" insane drum sequencing throughout the track, or "HONEY" sampling Beyonce's vocals in the second half. There never seems to be a clear idea of why anything is happening; rather it seems like the group just wanted to be as noisy as possible to express the way they had been feeling over the past summer. Some experiments turn out better than others. Maybe playing a car revving noise every time the bass hits is not one of those “better” ideas. However, maybe the multiple uses of a British lady talking about random things on multiple songs is.
When it comes to each member’s contributions on this album, we have some strong performers. After Ameer’s departure, two of the previously less utilized members, Joba and Merlyn Wood, really start to steal the show with this album. Joba’s verse on "SAN MARCOS" is one of my personal favorite verses in the group’s entire catalog. Merlyn’s signature screamed vocals make "WHERE THE CASH AT" as great as it is, as the whole song is almost entirely given to him to yell about robbing people to his heart’s desire. He tones it down on the tearjerker that is "TONYA," with its haunting piano intro, into contributions from each member about how they feel unimportant to the people around them. (Sidenote: I love Merlyn’s line where he says “Don’t think too fast, private jets still crash.” It’s just really good advice, honestly.) Besides those two, the MOST underutilized member of Brockhampton, bearface, who had previously been subjected to singing the outro songs, and some sparse singing parts on a few other tracks, is given a lot more room to shine with Ameer’s absence. However, bearface only sings on 3 of his 9 appearances. On the other 6 songs, he actually raps, which I think is the last thing any BROCKHAMPTON fan would have expected. But with what most people would have said was the best rapper in the group having left, they needed to fill the hole somehow. Even when he raps, his contributions are more hook-y than they are actually having a verse.
The band's successful album trilogy pictured above. Left to right: Saturation, Saturation II, Saturation III.
As for the remaining 3 members, Dom McLennon, Matt Champion, and leader Kevin Abstract, their contributions are a bit more all over the place. I have never been a big fan of Dom personally, and he doesn’t switch up much of his content on this album, but at the very least he’s consistent across of his 11 verses. Matt loses some of his charisma and energy he had during the Saturation trilogy, and trades it in for a more deadpan delivery throughout this new album. He does great on "VIVID" and "SAN MARCOS" though. As for Kevin, he goes weirdly incognito on iridescence. Previously, he had been in charge of almost every chorus on every song, but on iridescence, he takes more of a back seat. I’m not sure if this is because he genuinely wanted to, or if he just didn’t have any more ideas. He only handles 5 of the 12 choruses on this album, which is still almost half, but compared to Saturation III, where he handled every chorus, it’s definitely a noticeable difference. However, he more than makes up for it with some of his most well-written verses up to this point. For example, his heartbreaking verse on "WEIGHT" where he talks about missing the past, while also bringing up how he was extremely uncomfortable with his homosexuality in the past. There’s also "TAPE," where he takes the blame for his mother’s worsening health conditions, saying it’s because he "talks too much shit about her" in his music. He also has his own solo song with "SOMETHING ABOUT HIM," which is a quick but cute love song about his boyfriend at the time. So while Kevin may have become a little more sparse with his appearances, he makes sure that each appearance sticks with you more than anyone else’s.
When it comes to the tone of BROCKHAMPTON's previous albums, they had always had a good blend of fun, summer bangers mixed in with sad-boy indie songs. When it comes to iridescence, they decided to slightly tweak this formula, and instead made abrasive, harsh bangers or genuinely beautiful (while still sometimes abrasive), sad songs. If you’re looking for some fun, experimental, hardcore hip-hop, I would probably suggest "NEW ORLEANS," "BERLIN," "WHERE THE CASH AT," "DISTRICT," "J’OUVERT" and "VIVID." (Side note: I didn’t mention it in the Joba section, but his verse on "J’OUVERT" is actually insane and had my jaw on the floor the first time I heard it.)
The rest of the tracks can be put in the sad, abrasive, yet beautiful category. Dom’s verse on "THUG LIFE" sounds like he was genuinely crying while rapping it, and the lyrics are some of the most poetic ones he has ever written. I mentioned Kevin’s contributions on "WEIGHT" earlier, but Joba and Dom also have amazing performances on there, specifically Joba. "HONEY" is not a sad song, but it’s also not quite a banger. The first half is driven by a bumping bass and quick flows by Dom and Kevin, but when the song transitions into a chopped and screwed version of a song off of the original Saturation while Beyonce and Kevin Abstract harmonize on background vocals and police sirens wail, I don’t know what to think anymore. "SAN MARCOS" is one of the only BROCKHAMPTON songs I refuse to listen to, otherwise my day will be ruined and life will be heavily contemplated. Each member raps about their own mental health, and the toll it has taken on them. I already mentioned it, but Joba’s verse gets me every time. They even bring in a London children’s choir to finish the song off with the simple, but gut wrenching repetition of “I want more out of life than this.” As if that song didn’t make me cry, they put in another sad song directly after, this one being "TONYA." This song is not as overtly depressing as "SAN MARCOS" is, but once again the boys are extremely sad, and they all want to give up. Matt literally ends the song screaming “I don’t matter” into the mic – It doesn’t get more hopeless than that. The final song, "FABRIC," is a pretty anticlimactic ending to this insanely turbulent album. I can tell Kevin wanted to write another standout verse like "WEIGHT" or "TAPE," but it comes off a lot whinier than those verses did. Besides that, no one else really has much of interest to say, and the song builds up into infinity with Kevin repeating the chorus for the closing 2 minutes.
Release art for BROCKHAMPTON's fourth album, iridescence.
I want to touch on the fact that this was the first BROCKHAMPTON album with notable features. Actor and rapper Jaden Smith comes in for one of the choruses on "NEW ORLEANS," and singer serpentwithfeet does the chorus on "TONYA." Neither of these features are particularly notable, as they’re quick and (in the case of Jaden’s version of the chorus,) kind of pointless. However, features like these would set the table for people like A$AP Rocky and Danny Brown to come in a couple of years.
After all I’ve written about how weird and chaotic this album is, it somehow debuted at #1 on the Billboard Top 200. This goes to show you how popular the group was at this time, that even though this album had almost zero commercial appeal, they were still able to clench that top spot. They never had a #1 album again, even though their next album was easily the poppiest they ever got. It’s even more strange considering this is probably their least talked about album nowadays.
Overall, I really don’t know what to think of iridescence. It’s probably the band’s album I have the least amount of nostalgia with, as I hated it when I first listened to it, and it slowly grew on me. It really depends on the day where I would rank it in their discography, but as of today, I would probably say it’s my 5th favorite album of theirs. Although its loud and sometimes annoying approach to being sad is definitely interesting, I prefer their prettier approach to being sad they would take on their following album, GINGER.
