The Family & TM - Brockhampton: Review

Brockhampton

is an LA, via Texas, via a bunch of different places, hip hop group, and self-proclaimed boy band who have slowly developed a wider and wider fanbase with the release of each of their records since 2017's Saturation trilogy. Earlier this year the band announced the cancellation of their tour and their impending breakup, but after a Coachella performance that was billed as the "final" Brockhampton show the band announced a final Brockhampton album. As it turns out the band released two albums. First came The Family which features Kevin Abstract almost exclusively, and the next day they released TM a collection of tracks from previous recording sessions finished by Matt Champion and assembled into an album. It appears that these were both done to relieve the band from their contract with RCA records.

Review by Lav:

I'm disappointed by this outcome and I don't really understand how any Brockhampton fans aren't. I like this band quite a bit, I think they're talented, and records like Saturation II and Ginger showed both their versatility and creativity collectively. But for every album they released it feels like there was one promised, teased, or even formally announced, and then never released. But when the band announced a final record, I got excited. Let me make this very obvious for those who don't already know, we didn't get a final Brockhampton record. The Family is a Kevin Abstract solo project (albeit one that addresses drama and evokes nostalgia for Brockhampton's past 5 years), and TM is basically a B-Sides and Rarities collection. Am I glad these were released, sure. But they're the weakest projects the band has released so far and the only reason they weren't transparent in their intentions is that it would have made that conclusion obvious. 

The Family

Let's tackle The Family first, which loads up on 17 tracks though barely half of them stick around long enough to make any kind of real impression. Of all the shorter tracks really the only one that you NEED to hear as a fan is Southside, while the rest of them vary from decent to just flat out bad and unfinished. 

Take It Back is a decent start to the record that sees Kevin giving a pretty exciting performance that always got me ready to dive back into the record. I mostly feel the same about the singles, both of which I was positive towards. Big Pussy is a banger and my being quick to point out that it's basically unfinished turned out to be one of the themes of this record. The Ending is an even better single that I like because it was so funny and sees Kevin giving a raw ass performance that caught me off guard in a good way. It's definitely the most charming and down-to-earth song on the record but it perfectly predicts an issue I have with the project as a whole. 

The music and songwriting on this record aren't great. The primary reason I can tell anyone they should listen to this record is for the content of the lyrics, which is often the only interesting thing about these songs. While I think Kevin comparing the band breaking up to his parents on RZA is a bad metaphor, hearing his address all the times he attacked his mother on record in the past is admittedly interesting. 

All That is one of the most confessionary songs on the record and it will have a lot of context that fans will probably eat up but the sample is easily the best part of the track sonically. The rest of it is very sloppy and sounds like they tried to make one of their glistening sad but still catchy pop songs and couldn't really pull it off. 37th is another almost good song. The sentiment is really universal and I understand the appeal but it also has the corniest hook I have EVER heard on a Brockhampton song. The rest of the track is okay but it's an example of the record's need for more time and focus. 

The Family is the only song whose content is so interesting it makes it worth hearing all on its own. Kevin really takes on some of the most sensitive topics in the group's history and I'm honestly kind of surprised he was even allowed to put this out as a "Brockhampton" song given how emotional and accusatory it is. The song is definitely one of the most interesting on the record and one that fans will definitely want to hear and dissect.

Finally, there's the closing track which promises pretty big things by being called Brockhampton. There are definitely some moments on here that are really "you had to be there" for the band but given how cathartic it feels I'm not bothered by the things that aren't publicly known making it into the song. The climax of the song sees Kevin rattling off the things that make each of the members uniquely talented, albeit with slightly mixed results. Ultimately it isn't a world-conquering conclusion but more of a soft finale and while that disappointed me at first it's something I've started to come around to. 

This is a difficult record to judge because I can imagine for some diehard fans this feels like everything they've been waiting for and lives up to their expectations. Even I couldn't help but drop my jaw to the floor a few times as Kevin made revelations I never expected to hear about publicly, much less right from the mouth of one of the members. But that intrigue only goes so far, the fact of the matter is that the songs and production on this record are incredibly underwhelming and clearly very thrown together. I guess it's a testament to just how interesting and talented Kevin and Bearface are that the record isn't a disaster, but it certainly doesn't live up to anything they've released in the past. 5/10

TM

For some reason, I keep letting this band get my expectations up. Even after spending a day digesting everything that went on with The Family I still found myself pretty giddy to dive into another album. Even after hearing that it was basically a compilation album of old material I was at least intrigued by hearing what tracks the band felt needed to be released. But all things considered, this album is really JUST a compilation of songs that don't have any artistic intent to be heard together and some of which are objectively unfinished. That isn't a reason not to listen to the record because there really are some songs worth hearing in the mix, it's just something to take into account when you're creating expectations. 

FMG is a pretty solid and energetic start to the record so let's start with the highlights. NEW SHOWS has a weird, hard-hitting beat that feels like something from MUCH earlier in Brockhampton's career. If the Saturation era is what you've been craving this is definitely the song on the record that most resembles it. If you're looking form something more Ginger check out BETTER THINGS which isn't quite as good as that record's best ballads but is still a solid song. 

The real crown jewel of the record is CRUCIFY ME which is by FAR the best song on the record. It has that kind of sticky hook that Brockhampton have always been exceptionally good at writing and it really hasn't left my head since I first heard it. 

There are some other songs here that sort of walk a line between good and just unfinished. MAN ON THE MOON feels like the breakout song of the record at least from fan reactions. I can see why it's been divisive because it fuses together an instrumental that is kind of all over the place and features really awkward shifts with a memorable hook and some solid verses. If you can tolerate the awkwardness of the instrumental it's an alright song. 

LISTERINE is a cute song and I do like it but you have to be able to look past the fact that it's an embarrassingly obvious Travis Scott ripoff. DUCT TAPE does kind of confuse me as a critic because it doesn't really have any catchy or memorable refrains and the instrumental is totally flat throughout pretty much the entire song. Despite both of those facts, I do find something a little bit charming about it for some reason that I can't exactly pin down. 

Unsurprisingly, there are also some tracks in the mix that are just plain bad. The worst offenders of the bunch being ANIMAL, the worst song on the record, and ALWAYS SOMETHING which just feels like nobody really tried when writing it so no matter what was done on the back end they couldn't make it interesting. 

This record is a little bit better of a listen than The Family and if we had been accurately informed ahead of time what these two albums were I think I would be more generally positive about the outcome. But even with those adjusted expectations, this is just a compilation album that at least appears to come from all over the entirety of the band's last 5 years, with all the inconsistencies you'd expect. If The Family is mainly worth hearing for the drama unfolding throughout it, TM is mainly worth hearing for the 3-5 great songs it delivers, depending on which era of the band's career if your personal favorite. 5.5/10

For more hip hop check out my review of Drake and 21 Savage's Her Loss here