Album Review: SATURATION III – BROCKHAMPTON
WRITTEN BY: Christian Kaess
The “Best Damn Boyband in America” strikes again with yet another phenomenal album. Is there anything that can stop BROCKHAMPTON? At the rate they’re going now, I seriously doubt so.
Alternative hip-hop collective BROCKHAMPTON formed in 2015 with many of its 15+ members connecting via a Kanye West online fan forum. The group released their debut mixtape, All-American Trash in 2016, but didn’t truly reach widespread success until the release of SATURATION on June 9, 2017. The album was an overwhelming fresh breath of air, with an unrelenting wave of energy that carried from start to finish. The band has been riding high on this energy ever since, and has been doing exactly what their titles suggest by saturating the hip hop scene with their music.
On August 25, 2017 the band dropped their sophomore effort, SATURATION II, which was equally as explosive and unique as the first. The band went on tour during the month of September, then immediately following the tour, went back into the studio to begin recording a third album. On December 15, 2017 the SATURATION trilogy came to a beautiful close with the release of SATURATION III.
In six short months BROCKHAMPTON has incredibly released over 50+ songs, and shows no indication of stopping any time soon as they have already announced a fourth studio album to be released sometime in 2018. While it is tantalizing to imagine what the band has in store for next year, the current matter at hand is reviewing their latest album. The short review: SATURATION III was great. The long review: SATURATION III was utterly fantastic.
BROCKHAMPTON undoubtedly knows how to start off an album. “HEAT” and “GUMMY” (the opening songs from SATURATION I and SATURATION II respectively) include some of the group’s most entertaining and addictive beats, and SATURATION III’s “BOOGIE” is certainly no exception. The song opens with a barrage of police sirens, a buzzing bass line, and a symphony of horns. The song sees each of the band’s key members deliver passionate and amped verses that are full of energy, and catchy enough to get stuck in one’s head for weeks. It is one of the group’s most insane and experimental tracks to date, and sets the tone for the rest of the album.
The album addresses a multitude of themes including growing up/learning to mature, anxiety, fitting in with the world around you, societal issues, and sexuality, all of which are jam packed into the 46-minute runtime. Despite being their third project released this year, SATURATION III continues to evolve the group’s already diverse and unique sound. There were many tracks that caught me off guard such as “BLEACH,” “ALASKA,” “SISTER,” and “STAINS” to name a few. These tracks switched the beat throughout the song more frequently than on previous records, with “SISTER” as a clear standout from the bunch. “SISTER” dials the craziness up even further by featuring a rugged, forceful, and psychedelic beat that sounds like a weird mix of Death Grips, OutKast, and N.E.R.D all warped together in a 16-bit Sega Genesis game. It’s an electrifying song that will certainly blow fans’ minds once finally performed live.
Another unique song off the album is “HOTTIE,” which is unanimously the most un-BROCKHAMPTON BROCKHAMPTON song ever recorded. There is a heightened emphasis on melody as opposed to lyricism, which produces a more mainstream pop feel rather than a rap song. It is a welcome change for the group, and could easily become a radio hit. The song “STUPID” is one of SATURATION III’s most dominant bangers, with its hypnotic and funky synth chords and heavy bass wailing throughout the track. It also boasts an unforgettably addictive hook (“Boys wanna play with my cell phone”// “But I don’t want nobody to see what’s in it”) that will surely be playing on repeat in my head for days to come. 
The group pulled out one final surprise with “TEAM”, the closing song on the album. This song features a gleaming shoegaze style guitar ballad led by vocals from BROCKHAMPTON’s most under-appreciated member, Bearface. While Bearface closing out the album is nothing new (He has provided lead vocals on the previous two albums’ closing songs), what caught me off guard was the mid-song beat switch, which lead to an unexpected set of powerful rap verses. Kevin Abstract delivers one of his strongest bars (“Little old me, I thought my world was progressive”// “Cause my president was black, twenty-five lighters on the dresser”), which is then followed by equally strong verses from Ameer Vann, Dom McLennon, and Matt Champion. The song closes by bringing the entire SATURATION saga full circle, as the ending notes from “TEAM” are the same as the beginning notes from “HEAT”, the song that started the trilogy. With these last few closing seconds SATURATION III loops back to the beginning of SATURATION I, and I could not think of a better way to end an era.
2017 will soon be remembered as the year BROCKHAMPTON captivated the music world, and truly earned their title as “America’s Favorite Boyband.” They consistently produce one incredible track after another, and have had me on the edge of my seat since the second I first heard them. If you have yet to give BROCKHAMPTON a chance, stop reading this article, find the nearest pair of headphones, and get ready to experience one of the most exhilarating and exciting groups in music today. In the meantime, I will be listening to SATURATION on repeat, anxiously waiting to see what they have for us next.
