Roadrunner: New Light, New Machine (often abbreviated to Roadrunner and stylized in all caps) is the sixth studio album by American hip hop boy band Brockhampton.[1] The album was released on April 9, 2021 through RCA and Question Everything,[2] and received generally positive reviews from music critics.[3] The album contains guest appearances from Danny Brown, JPEGMafia, A$AP Rocky, A$AP Ferg, SoGone SoFlexy, Charlie Wilson, Baird, and SSGKobe.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Brockhampton released songs on their YouTube channel every weekend, and would sometimes livestream on Twitch and Instagram. During these streams, known as Technical Difficulties Radio, Brockhampton would play unreleased music, with some songs releasing shortly after the end of some streams.[4] The series was abruptly cancelled, and in September 2020, Brockhampton producer Romil Hemnani revealed in an interview that the album's initials were RR, leaving fans to believe that the album was titled Roadrunner.[5] The title was later confirmed, and the album's full title, Roadrunner: New Light, New Machine, was announced shortly after the release of the lead single "Buzzcut". Brockhampton recorded three different versions of Roadrunner and chose one for the final cut of the album.[6]Kevin Abstract revealed on Twitter that Roadrunner was the first of "[two] Brockhampton albums [to be released] in 2021", later clarifying that the upcoming albums will be Brockhampton's final releases.[7] The second album was later delayed to 2022, though on January 14, 2022, Brockhampton announced an indefinite hiatus following their Coachella performance in April 2022.[8] That album, The Family, was announced October 27, 2022, set for a November 17 release.
After the album was released, Abstract announced via TikTok that a deluxe edition of the album was to be released soon.[9] The Plus Pack edition of the album was released on June 4, 2021, including four new songs.[10]
Roadrunner: New Light, New Machine was met with generally favorable reviews upon release. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from professional publications, the release received an average score of 79, based on 13 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[3] Aggregator AnyDecentMusic? gave the album a 7.0 out of 10, based on their assessment of the critical consensus.[11]
Amongst the positive reviews from critics, AllMusic's Neil Z. Yeung said that the album served as a "masterful group therapy session, picking up the broken pieces of life and uplifting with cautious optimism."[22]
In June 2021, Billboard ranked the album among the best 15 albums released by LGBTQ artists in 2021 so far.[23]
Lyrics
Prior to the album's release, one member of Brockhampton, Joba, commented that the lyrics of Roadrunner contains themes that are very personal to the members, including the suicide of Joba's father.[24]Kevin Abstract noted that there would be lyrics about his sexuality on the record.[24]
"Windows" contains excerpts and a sample of "It's Me Who Loves You", written by Darryl Gibbs and performed by Crown Heights Affair, excerpts from "In the Struggle", written by Dominic Painter, Hasani Lateef Chapman and M. Jacobs Jr., and performed by Reborn Soldiers, and "Em3", written by Shaheel Wright and performed by Lord Apex.
"Old News" contains excerpts from "Keep Your Faith to the Sky", written by Nathaniel Johnson and performed by Willie Scott & the Birmingham Spirituals.
"The Light Pt. II" contains excerpts from "Hace casi 2000 años", written by Edelmiro Molinari and performed by Color Humano.
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