★★★★☆
When are a boy band not a boy band? When they were put together in 2010 by a 14-year-old misfit from Texas called Kevin Abstract, who posted a message on a Kanye West fan forum calling for like-minded people to make music with. The result was Brockhampton, the self-proclaimed “best boy band since One Direction”. In truth you cannot see Simon Cowell sniffing around something this weird and unsettling, even if Brockhampton do have a propensity for matching outfits and choreographed dance routines.
An ultra-modern collective made up of twentysomethings of different ethnic backgrounds and sexual orientations, Brockhampton combine catchy pop hooks with the more out-there aspects of hip-hop and skater culture, alongside a Generation Z-style propensity for truth-telling and vulnerability. And on their latest, throwaway goofiness and hard-hitting commentary run alongside real emotional power. The result is an oversaturated barrage of an album that sounds like what living in 2021 feels like: multifaceted, troubled, hopeful.
Brockhampton have forgone the usual boy band process of being puppets of a shady svengali to build a colourful world of their own. Count On Me features a caustic rap from the New York hip-hop giant A$AP Rocky, but also an empathetic chorus on brotherly love from the bland Canadian heart-throb Shawn Mendes. Buzzcut is a riot of siren samples and thudding bass lines, with Abstract celebrating the band’s achievements even as he accepts the limitations of their power by rapping: “A platinum record’s not going to keep my black ass out of jail.” A brutal rap about racial violence called Don’t Shoot Up the Party is followed by a stirring, heartfelt gospel called Dear Lord. And so it goes on, one contradiction piling up after another.
All this feeds into the illusion that boy bands hope to create: of being a gang, in it together, dealing with whatever life throws at them. Unlike constructed acts such as One Direction, however, the 13 members of Brockhampton really have a camaraderie. Some are old high-school friends of Abstract. Even the ones who met on the Kanye West fan forum ended up living together in a house in San Marcos, Texas, as they planned Brockhampton’s assault on the world.
The gang hit their first crisis in 2018 when founder member Ameer Vann was chucked out after being accused of sexual assault (allegations he denied). The second came in 2020 when the father of Joba, aka Texas-born Russell Boring, committed suicide, an event documented on a devastating confessional called The Light. And soon the gang will be no more. Abstract has stated that this will be the first of two albums released in 2021, then Brockhampton will split. Every boy band has to know when to call it a day — even one as weird and creative as this. (Sony)