Hip-hop boy band Brockhampton have released their sixth studio album entitled Roadrunner: New Light, New Machine.
According to the band leader, Kevin Abstract, this album is the first of two albums the band will release this year. However, these albums will also be their final records according to them.
This first album of 2021 features an important number of guests as Danny Brown, JPEGMAFIA, A$Ap Rocky, A$AP Ferg, SoGone SoFlexy, Charlie Wilson, and Baird.
As always, we can find a mix of their different styles in the album. Between pure hip-hop and more instrumental and melancholic songs, we are able to travel into their universe with this new album.
Back in 2017, the boy band released the Saturation trilogy which was described by its playfulness but also its fun nature. However, since this trilogy, the following albums were darker in nature, namely due to the personal situation of some members of the band.
This is still the case for Roadrunner, here Joba used this album to explore his mental health and his reflection on his father’s suicide with the song “The Light”. He raps over a sound of classic rock guitar “When I look at myself, I see a broken man / Remnants of my pops, put the Glock to his head / Nothing ever go as planned, couldn’t make amends / Forcibly pretend I don’t give a damn.”
Later in the song, he doesn’t hesitate to describe the sight of the scene, which is haunting him “Think I always will be haunted by the image / Of a bloody backdrop, skull fragments in the ceilin’ / Felt your presence in the room, heard my mother squealin’.”
Some songs are composed to become lighter musical moments as “Count On Me” – a summer hit composed for road trip with a whistled melody – or “Old News”. However, the entire album has quite a deep melancholy to it.
Listen to Roadrunner: New Light, New Machine here:
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