It’s the last friday of November (11/27) , which means a new album of the month. This came pretty easy. I’m not a fan of repeating artist because I want to make this blog as diverse as possible, but I feel this is deserved for this album. Album of the month for November goes to Brockhampton’s second studio album, Saturation  II. This album was released in August of 2017 and is in the alternative R&B genre.

Best Scenario to listen to this album: Roadtrip or you want a hype jam session with some friends.

 

 

 

 

I chose this album because I listened to it in my last two weeks in state college to motivate me to finish strong. I spent a nice amount of time listening to all three of the Saturation’s. Brockhampton has three Saturation albums. After critical listening, I have come to the conclusion that Saturation II is the best one. This was not easy because all of them single handedly have their own songs that are really good. For example, Saturation 3 has Bleach and Saturation 2 has Gold and Face on their tracklist.  Personally I don’t think Saturation 3 is anywhere in the running with Saturation 1 and 2. The real decision was between Saturation 1 and 2. Saturation 2 came out on top due to Tokyo, Sweet, Junky, Queer and Summer. It’s like they tried to spread all the good tracks between the 3 albums, but ended up pouring the hits into Saturation 2.

I really just want to rant about how well this album was put together. The cover art, the songs and how different they sound, but flow so well together and the music videos. It’s funny that the album is called Saturation because everything in the music videos are saturated either red or yellow.  The music videos feel like a party and make the songs more exhilarating and it makes listening to music an entire experience. Especially in Swamp. It’s like you’re in the car with them.  I can’t fully explain the music video experience but the colors they use, the setting and the red light that they use in Junky and Swamp makes this album different from the rest. Also the way they rap/sing into the camera, it makes you feel like a fly on the wall. You mainly see this is Junky. Especially when it looks as if were in the cabinet and Joba is dead staring at the camera while Matt Champion raps his verse. You can’t clearly see Matt Champions face, but Joba’s is staring dead into your eyes.

All of these songs on this album are different and have one thing in common; there’s not a sad song on this album. If you’re looking to cry or get in your feelings, this album isn’t it. The way these track were put together was not random. In some songs, everybody in Brockhampton is not singing, but they split it up pretty well. Like in Junky, Joba doesn’t have a verse, but in Sweet he does and when you listen to them, you can tell that his voice fit better in Sweet. Also the way its organized. In Sweet, Matt Champion starts off strong, and usually Kevin Abstract will start off the songs. This time Kevin is on the chorus. This might not make sense now, but if you listen to the album, you’ll understand how they curate each track to sound different, but flow equally the same. Something that also deserves recognition is how they can switch up their flows from singing to rapping or vice versa. This is mainly seen in Sweet. In Merlyn’s  verse he switches his flow three times, everytime it sounds like someone else is singing, but it’s just Merlyn. TALENT. Pure talent that exhibits. Joba does it as well in Sweet. He switches his flow twice and once again you’d think someone else started rapping. Not every artist can do that. It doesn’t get the recognition it deserves.

Lastly, I wanna talk about the cover art.

They didn’t do this for every track, just the ones with music videos.

There’s no real  point I want to make here, besides my point of them working hard to make Saturation 2 not only vocally pleasing but visually pleasing too. The colors, the word format, the black and white, the format of the pictures. No album to my knowledge has crafted an album more pleasing. Not only does this make me want to listen to the album, but experience it. This can go down as one of Brockhampton’s best and  I wouldn’t be mad. They put time into Saturation 2 and it shows.

I also want to retract my statement that there’s no sad song in this album. Simply because of Summer. It’s not necessarily sad, but it has a somber tone to it. The album from start to finish gives you a ” It’s the beginning of Summer, it’s time to party” type vibe, but the last track is like a goodbye to the summer of 2017.

Listen to this album, and when I say listen I mean, get on youtube and listen to this album, and watch the music videos. You need the full experience to understand this. If you’ve never listened to Brockhampton or haven’t heard of them, Saturation 2 is a good place to start. It showcases not only their creativity, but their versatility too.

Saturation 2 is well deserved of album of the month and doesn’t get the recognition it deserves. You’re not going to regret listening to this for the first time.