Album by The Kid LAROI
Before I Forget is a breakup album from someone who is nowhere near ready to get over the breakup.
There’s no real bravado here. The Kid LAROI isn’t telling us he’s better off without her or celebrating his newfound freedom. He’s confused, depressed, getting drunk, wondering whether the relationship can be repaired, and trying to understand how something that was supposed to last forever ended. He also isn’t really examining what he did wrong yet. These songs are too emotional for that kind of analysis. This isn’t post-breakup music. This is deep in the break.
“Me + You” has the bones of classic R&B, but everything sounds electronically manipulated and sped up, almost like someone took an old Mary J. Blige track and cranked up the RPMs. There’s a smooth beat underneath it and LAROI finds a really cool cadence to ride over the top.
The title initially made me expect some kind of us-against-the-world love song. Instead, we’re already post-breakup. Memories of better times swirl around promises that they would always be together, while LAROI can’t seem to understand how they got from there to here.
“July” pushes further into electronic pop while keeping some of that R&B underneath it. LAROI is still stuck at the beginning of the end, trying to understand how everything fell apart. I especially like the vocal hook, where the layered tracks almost turn his voice into a call and response with itself.
“Private” is closer to classic pop R&B, the kind of thing that makes me think of Michael Jackson or Justin Timberlake. It’s the first time the album really picks up, with a chorus that rises into something almost danceable. Emotionally, LAROI seems to have moved from wondering what happened to wondering whether any of the bridges can still be rebuilt.
“Rather Be” brings the energy back down. Over another slow electronic R&B beat, LAROI tries coping with the breakup through getting drunk and having empty sex. It doesn’t seem to be working particularly well.
“5:21AM” introduces acoustic guitar, and LAROI’s vocals sound distant and fragile, almost like he recorded them alone in the far corner of a huge room. It perfectly captures that foggy early-morning state where you’re exhausted but your brain won’t stop working through everything that’s making you miserable.
“A Cold Play” sounds like a hit. There’s a little 80s synth ballad in there, updated with a persistent modern beat, and it’s probably my favorite vocal performance on the album.
It also gets interesting lyrically because LAROI comes close to acknowledging his own role in the breakup, but he isn’t quite there yet. His regret still includes the idea that he should have been able to fix the other person. Even when blaming himself, he’s still positioning her as the broken one. He’s too deep inside the breakup to have much perspective on it yet.
“Never Came Back” is the first song where I can hear something resembling a path forward. There’s some acceptance that the relationship is actually over and life has to continue.
“Thank God” builds slowly before bursting into one of the album’s biggest and catchiest choruses, but emotionally LAROI isn’t suddenly cured because he had one moment of clarity.
“I’m So In Love With You” takes another turn. It’s softer and more wistful, with echoing vocals over the R&B and hip-hop beat that has carried much of the album. Rather than trying to move on, LAROI seems to surrender to the possibility that his love for this person simply isn’t going anywhere.
Finally, “Back When You Were Mine” strips everything down around an acoustic guitar, although the music gradually returns as the chorus builds. After spending an entire album trying to live through the breakup, LAROI ends up almost exactly where he started: looking backward, thinking about his devotion to this person, and still wondering why everything fell apart.
That’s what makes Before I Forget work for me more than the usual breakup narrative. This isn’t an album about gaining perspective. He doesn’t have any yet.
There’s no clean progression from heartbreak to acceptance. He makes progress and loses it. He numbs himself. He bargains. He thinks he’s moving forward and then finds himself right back where he started.
That can make Before I Forget feel a little repetitive, both musically and emotionally. There were times when I wanted the album to move somewhere else. But I also think some of that repetition is the point. When you’re this deep inside a breakup, you don’t necessarily move forward. Sometimes you just keep going over the same questions and getting nowhere.
Before I Forget is the tale of an unfinished journey. A flat arc. It’s not document getting over someone.
It’s about not being able to yet.
Verdict: Worth a Spin
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