Ginger

The album brims with delicate moments like the title track and standout "Victor Roberts." In the former, plumes of electronics caress empathetic lines with genuine emotion, while the latter introduces new associate Victor Roberts with crystallized observations of childhood trauma and grimy electricity. Exhibition of vulnerability and invincibility, Ginger blood-lets an emotional palette where wounds are finally left to heal.

GINGER yields a sound that is more emotionally evolved than any album thus far. ... The result is BROCKHAMPTON have finally come of age.

At this point of the Brockhampton story, the boys have tempered the antics and wild-child energy of past releases, maturing with an authentic grace that will only further endear them to fans of past work looking for more substance and sentiment.

There are plenty of hooks here, but nothing to make a festival tent bounce like ‘Boogie’ or ‘Gold’ can. It’s a small criticism, though, on an album that resets Brockhampton’s compass and sees them straying away from the danger of implosion that ‘Iridescence’ seemed to suggest.

Their tightest and potentially most memorable album yet. ... The undercurrent of anxiety — a hallmark of the group’s identity — is still present but holds new weight here, more mature and weary, and less a mark of their youth.

Since GINGER contains more fresh ideas than almost every great rap album of 2019 combined, once again it’s hard to pin down why it feels like such a relief when it finally ends, why traditional technicians like Dababy and Megan Thee Stallion and their fellow hype-turning-institution, Cardi B feel like they deliver more satisfying fulfillment of what they promise.

Even the prettiest BROCKHAMPTON songs can feel cramped, but many of these songs, though each endowed with their little moments, are disorganized or inefficient.

While Iridescence proved that the group could survive Vann’s abrupt departure, Ginger exposes their creative limitations. Although their winning streak may be over, Ginger has enough good ideas to suggest that with a bit more editing, Brockhampton can potentially reclaim their footing.

Each of their albums experiment with genre, but GINGER is all over the place, never really sure what it wants to be. But moving forward, it seems pretty clear the group from that “BOOGIE” performance is a thing of the past, for better or for worse, and they’re attempting to evolve into something else. It’s just unclear if becoming the boy band of their dreams is the best use of their talents.

GINGER is new ground for Brockhampton, and a gentle nudge to others, urging them to go on their own paths of rediscovery and explore their roots. Thing is, we might need a bit more than a gentle nudge.