Photo taken from Genius.com

The album cover of Saturation III, the last of the trilogy, features member Ameer Vann as did the two previous albums did, this time in a jumpsuit with a single tear.

Brockhampton’s “Saturation” trilogy isn’t just a trilogy, it’s a timeless never-ending story that leads into the craziest and most unique sound hip-hop has heard recently.

With the last two dazzling albums, Brockhampton has finally released the third and final album of their trilogy, “Saturation III.”

Brockhampton is a hip-hop collective or self-proclaimed “boy band” who were originally from San Marcos, TX, but are currently in the Los Angeles area. Their “boy band” was first formed by Kevin Abstract with his close friend Ameer Van in high schoolbut later recruited nearly all of the other members on Kanyetothe, an online forum. Brockhampton has an overwhelming amount of 14 members total, seven of which which are artists involved in creating the vocals for their music.

Brockhampton hasn’t had much attention apart from their mixtape, “All-American Trash,” which put them in the spotlight, but that spotlight slowly faded to a dim. They later decided to start a new chapter to their career: the Saturation Era. With this came two jaw-dropping albums which brought a completely new and fresh sound that 2017 has not heard yet and came to a crazed and wacky conclusion, Saturation III.

One of the problems the first two albums that  the Saturation trilogy faced  was that their music was really great, but the sound was sounding “too similar.” They took this criticism very seriously, and as a result, came with a brand new sound which completely perfected their style, giving everyone a taste of what Brockhampton is all about.

Their finalized sound that they produced can be shown in debatably the most zany and mind blowing track/single, “BOOGIE.” BOOGIE can be best described as a song that you just go wild to. The beat is penetrated with a strong and stretching police siren while being backed up with an absolutely insane saxophone and bass background. This song is a scream to people in a extremely loud and upbeat way.

The next two tracks on this album, “ZIPPER” and “JOHNNY,” both continue their jazzy, poppy sound with their saxophone and loud dirty bass back. ZIPPER is a track on this album that really stands out to show what they can pull off. In this track, JOBA rides this lit-up, broken-down roller coaster of an instrumental with support from Matt Champion and Merlyn Wood, delivering a track that is very unique compared to anything any artist in 2017 has brought us.

Apart from their strong tracks, there are definitely some weak ones, most notably “STAINS.”  The track itself is really dulled down in comparison to the others; it’s just one of Brockhampton’s least exciting tracks. Speaking of exciting tracks, or in this case, their weirdest track they have made yet, “SISTER/NATION” is a double song that has a beat switch mid way, completely changing the mood from chaotic and aggressive to a dreamy atmospheric melody. If you’ve ever heard of “Death Grips,” there are two melodies after some verses that sound very similar to it, giving it more of that aggressiveness.This song is also very different compared to anything they’ve done before, since there is an actual Roberto skit right in the beginning of it.  

These Roberto skits— titled “CINEMA” in Saturation III— are skits during which one of their members, Robert, speaks in Spanish  about an unknown story/topic. All throughout the Saturation trilogy came a pair or three of these skits which all have a connection to the story behind the albums themselves, which gives a really cool element to their work.

I can’t even go on without mentioning the god-like ability of Kevin Abstract to make the most catchy hooks off all time. “Boys wanna play on my cellphone, but I don’t want nobody to see whats it in.” After hearing “STUPID,” this will be playing like a broken record in your head all day long along with the “HOTTIE” hook. “Put the bag in the cup, add it up, add it up,” and so on. All of the hooks are satisfying, which is a key factor to why almost all of their tracks are memorable.

At the very end of the album comes “TEAM,” with lead vocals by Bearface. The other half features Kevin Abstract, Ameer Van, Dom Mclennon, Matt Champion, and Bearface once again. Constructed beautifully with simple yet glamorous guitar chords, Bearface rides this passionate melody with his outstanding voice. Shortly after this, it suddenly has a beat switch, transitioning into an old sounding type of sound with a few of the members trading verses with each other. The ending of TEAM has a harmonious tune by Bearface, slowly transitioning into the song’s instrumental, but it soon fades into the beginning of “HEAT”— the first track in Saturation I— making the Saturation trilogy an endless story.

The Saturation trilogy (I, II, and III) is something the hip hop scene hasn’t ever  seen. Having all seven vocal artists blasting their work into the mic with all their different sounds and personalities gives us something unique both artistically and in general. The pitched-up vocals with raw emotions in Saturation I, the unique and jagged hits in Saturation II, and of course the wavy and crazed tracks in Saturation III— all which have been released in 2017— have truly “saturated” the market with honestly one of the most innovated sounds in the hip hop scene in the last decade. I would give Saturation III a rating of 9/10 because of its incredible material and its little amount of filler and lack of lackluster songs. Saturation III, as well as all of the Saturation trilogy, is available on Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal, and SoundCloud.