Recently, BROCKHAMPTON, considered the hardest working boyband in show business, released their fourth studio album, “iridescence.” Developed at Abbey Road studios in just ten days, the album is considered by critics as a “masterpiece” and “boundary breaking.”
After a summer full of adversity, “iridescence” is a tribute to Kevin Abstract, Matt Champion, and the rest of the crew’s hard working mentality. First, domestic abuse allegations against Ameer Vann, one of the group’s core members, lead to the group deciding to kick him out.
Vann was figuratively and literally the face of BROCKHAMPTON. He was included on all three “Saturation” album covers, and his forced departure led to the scrapping of “PUPPY,” another album in production.
The group struggled to create music over the summer, and scrapped multiple albums, including “PENCIL,” “THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES” and others. The band then proceeded to release three singles, “1999 WILDFIRE,” “1998 TRUMAN,” and “1997 DIANA.”
BROCKHAMPTON then landed a ten day recording session at Abbey Road Studios in London. In those ten days, they proceeded to create fifteen songs, which came out to be 49 minutes in total.
The album includes songs such as “NEW ORLEANS,” “J’OUVERT,” and “WHERE THE CASH AT” which involve more rap aspects and take advantage of members like Russell “Joba” Boring, and William “Merlyn” Wood’s lyrical skills.
It also includes slower songs like “WEIGHT,” “TONYA,” and “SAN MARCOS” that discuss BROCKHAMPTON’s members’ personal struggles including national identity, accepting their sexuality, and growing up in poverty.
After debuting at number one on the Billboard 200 Albums Chart, hype over the album has increased even more. “iridescence” beat out Josh Groban’s “Bridges” for number one over the weekend.
There has been lots of debate over if the album is the best one BROCKHAMPTON has produced. Considering the circumstances, I believe it is. The album was recorded in only ten days, and it was released with the most expansive merch release the group has ever created.
The band clearly shows more emotion in “iridescence,” and uses their members more aptly. “Saturation” 1-3 only involved Bearface for 2% of their collective runtime of 145 minutes. In “iridescence” alone, Bearface is used in 20% of it’s 49 minute runtime.
To be fair, the group kicked out Vann, one of their most used members before the release of “iridescence,” meaning there was a necessity for people to step up and contribute more. Also, if any of the Saturation trilogy had been created in the short amount of time “iridescence” had, I don’t think they would have been as good as “iridescence.”
With a total of 27 pieces of merchandise released, many including digital copies of the album, the boyband successfully created full campaign of advertisement for their album. They also created a documentary titled “The Longest Summer In America,” which is directed by Dude Heifetz.
The film will play in 17 venues around the world, and tickets cost $1. The group believes that all their fans should be able to see it, which is why they are selling the tickets for so little. Personally, I believe that rather than only show the film in select theaters, they should upload it to their Youtube and sell it for a similar price. They could also offer to sell it on their website.