Lost in a fog of synths, Kevin Abstract’s falsetto cries, “I don’t know where I’m goin’/ If I gotta take the high road, I’m rollin,” rippling adrift and unmoored on opener “No Halo.” Neither pessimistic nor impassioned, the rest of Ginger mirrors this wary sentiment. Scarred by the burdens of trauma, anxiety, heartbreak, the onetime San Marcos pop-rap collective’s second major label release evidences all of the hallmark themes found on Brockhampton’s All-American Trash from 2016, teenage angst now giving way to a bedlam of millennial malaise.
Dom McLennon and Matt Champion exchange lines on addiction and/or hopscotch nostalgia in acoustic reverie “Sugar.” Kevin Abstract unpacks toxic masculinity whilst Joba free-falls into cerebral elegy and murky loneliness on the druggy, atmospheric “Big Boy.” In hard-hitting twofer “Boy Bye” and “St. Percy,” the group slips back to its zany boy band personalities that leap about on the unpredictable “If You Pray Right,” as New Orleans brass and Nintendo-style instrumentals reintroduce the band’s manic energy.
Yet, unlike the unorthodox Saturation trilogy (2017) or erratic Iridescence (2018), the album brims with delicate moments like the title track and standout “Victor Roberts.” In the former, plumes of electronics caress empathetic lines with genuine emotion, while the latter introduces new associate Victor Roberts with crystallized observations of childhood trauma and grimy electricity. Exhibition of vulnerability and invincibility, Ginger blood-lets an emotional palette where wounds are finally left to heal.
This article appears in September 27 • 2019.