Ginger
| Brockhampton
Ginger
Ginger (stylized in all caps) is the fifth studio album by American hip hop collective Brockhampton. It was released on August 23, 2019, through the band's label Question Everything and RCA.-"Wikipedia"
Critic Reviews
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Pitchfork
GINGER, a compelling but disjointed record loosely about self-fulfillment. Even the prettiest BROCKHAMPTON songs can feel cramped, but many of these songs, though each endowed with their little moments, are disorganized or inefficient. It isn’t as pessimistic, jittery, or moody as iridescence but it’s still rather cheerless.
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Rolling Stone
Their music approach on Ginger is truly omnivorous, blasting out shards of acoustic guitar and sideways techno, murky R&B and bars-centric lyricism, at times evoking artists. The group’s vocalists take turns exploring mental health, relationships, addiction, and their faith in God. However, they rarely take these topics too far past surface level brushes, resulting in a lot of talking sad and saying nothing.
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The Line of Best Fit
GINGER yields a sound that is more emotionally evolved than any album thus far. Where The Saturation Trilogy was raw youthfulness and Iridescence was loaded with erratic expression, GINGER is, at last, the coherence we have been searching for. Here is a band who have had the chance to breathe, to live, to process – the result is BROCKHAMPTON have finally come of age.
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NME
Across ‘Ginger’, Brockhampton push themselves forward gently in musical terms. ‘Boy Bye’ is a carnival-like thing with a spellbinding lead line and freewheeling verses from every member swirling around, and this spirit is continued on the album’s highlight, its title track. ‘Ginger’ is the sound of the lyrical weight of ‘Iridescence’ being forcibly lifted off the band, with auto-tuned melodies floating around a catchy, snappy beat. It’s utter bliss.
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Consequence of Sound
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.
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Variety
With “Ginger,” their fifth record in just over two years, they’ve presented their tightest and potentially most memorable album yet. Across twelve tracks, the rap collective is noticeably more controlled and concise. feels richer, realer, and reaching something newly sublime.
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Hiphop DX
Ginger, their fifth studio album, represents a dip in quality and a sign that perhaps it’s time to get back to the drawing board. Though there are a few bangers and tracks that showcase an impressive amount of emotional depth, the album often sounds scattered and chaotic.
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Stereogum
Ginger is a messy, unfocused album, and I don’t think I’ll return to it too often. I like focus and directness and simplicity; they’re some of the qualities that drew me to rap music in the first place, a million years ago. The proggy feelings-wallow sensibility of recent Brockhampton records leaves me cold. And yet I’m glad it exists.
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KeyMag
Despite offering a more cerebral listen, GINGER has the potential to stick in memory through all the noise of today’s rapid-fire release rate that the collective themselves arguably contributed to. The fifteen-piece find power in lyrical maturity and audial simplicity as their creative muse.
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Sputnik Music
If the album has any shortcomings, it’s that while I think it’s a logical progression of their sound, it’s not the instant breath of fresh air that iridescence was, and more than likely won’t prove to be as rewarding and dense as that venture proved to be, even if I find it to have an easier, more accessible sound that will be far less off putting and strange.
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The Edge
Though GINGER as a whole can be seen as slightly disappointing there are some amazing songs on the album, such as ‘ST. PERCY’ and ‘IF YOU PRAY RIGHT’. It may not be an album you would replay but individual songs are something to add to a playlist.
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HIGHSNOBIETY
BROCKHAMPTON are creating a safe space – where being hard is just as important as being soft – for young people to share their feelings. Unfortunately the final product doesn’t quite live up to the billing, with GINGER feeling like a confused, disjointed record, from a group that’s full of great ideas without the follow-through to fully realize them.
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Clash
A journey filled with religious themes, mental health awareness and mainstream fame, Brockhampton’s fifth effort ‘GINGER’ resurrects the partially dead brotherhood that was close to burial on their previous project, ‘iridescence’. ‘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.
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The Daily Nebraskan
This record portrays Brockhampton as a multi-faceted group as it elicits much emotion on each song. “GINGER” shows the individuality of each group member, and proves that Brockhampton is more than a one-dimensional, in-your-face rap collective.
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Paste
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.
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NZ Herald
Lyrically, there are gentle and beautiful moments, others that channel a jaded Billie Eilish-style delivery, along with more up-tempo and aggressive sections that border on menacing. But with tumultuous times behind them, Ginger showcases the myriad directions in which the group could go and ultimately reassures fans that Brockhampton are here to stay.
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The Hoya
Looking beyond the questionable ending, “GINGER” is BROCKHAMPTON’s most cohesive and consistent attempt at coming to terms with Vann’s departure and moving forward as a group. The stunning instrumentals heard throughout BROCKHAMPTON’s discography wield more power than ever, due to the emotional heft and context of the album.
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The Musical Hype
in regard to quality and overall execution, it’s a very strong well-rounded affair. There’s plenty of introspection, superb rhymes and singing (even when effects-heavy), and the songs are all quite enjoyable. All in all, a winner.
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Contact Music
'Ginger' is another winner from Brockhampton in terms of quality and another part of their legacy, but unlike previous efforts, there's very little air of victory. This just might be Brockhampton's most therapeutic record yet and if not for the listener, definitely for them.
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The Diamondback
This album’s beats are just as fresh and clean as the lyrics. it’s a beautiful display of artistry and brotherhood, and it’s the album Brockhampton needed to make.
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Sentry
Hip-hop boy band BROCKHAMPTON’s fifth studio album, GINGER, takes the group’s sound in a new direction. The band has returned with a different vibrancy as opposed to their previous four albums. Replacing the bounce of their older and more popular tracks, creating amore mature nuance and artistic perspective.
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UpRoxx
The music on Ginger reflects their growth both as musicians and as men, finally finding the balance between rage and reflection. The first strides that they’ve made have been halting and shaky at times, but they’re encouraging. This boy band is slowly growing up and letting fans watch them figure it out in real time — just like they always have.
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Atwood Magazine
BROCKHAMPTON have undoubtedly grown over the course of their musical tenure, continually surprising and delighting fans and critics alike with their maturation. They have naturally come into their own, consciously reflecting on their lives with finesse and unostentatious self-efficacy. GINGER feels appropriately thoughtful, providing BROCKHAMPTON with the best tools to continue on their explosive — and inevitable — rise.
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RMU Sentry Media
“GINGER” is not exactly a return to form from the band after “Iridescence,” but rather a much better execution of what the group was trying to get on that album. The group gets back to the same consistency they had on the “SATURATION” trilogy while moving past the hardships that came with Ameer’s departure.
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Exepose
BROCKHAMPTON, thanks to the vast variety of the group, manage to authentically narrate the stories of our generation throughout GINGER – of poverty, mental illnesses, sexuality and those that impact all of us, like loss and heartache.
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Stars and Scars
Ginger, a mellower, reflective, and concise record as opposed to the sprawling bombast scope of Iridescence. Over their past five releases, Brockhampton have edged closer and closer to achieving their highest potential. With Ginger, the group solidify their place as one of the most exciting and dynamic acts around today. The fact that they do so while sounding completely human – now that’s real talent.
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Sideline
The best thing I can praise about this album is that it feels like BROCKHAMPTON’s most cohesive work to date. The themes of love, religion, betrayal, and loss interweave with one another beautifully, complementing each other both in terms of lyrics and musical motifs. It feels like BROCKHAMPTON were in a very centered place when writing and recording the album, fueling their shared feelings on their situation into one emotionally impactful product.
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Double Take Magazine
All in all, GINGER is a multi-layered album with great meaning and depth. Even though some may say the album is not as cohesive and put together as they would like, it is a beautiful piece of work and one of Brockhampton’s very best.
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