Release Date: 9 January 2026
Song Count: 15
Rating: 4.0/10
Description:
Worldwide-known stars on the proper big stages are an archetype of music artists we haven't seen on the site in a while, partially due to lack of subjective interest in solely covering the biggest faces in the field, but partially also because there seemingly has been a bit of a lack of full-on album releases from most of these big names, save for a few exceptions. Charlton Howard, known professionally as The Kid LAROI, a young Sydney-born musician who had his breakout earlier in the decade with songs like "WITHOUT YOU" and "STAY", joined this club of said exceptions on this very day (at least date-wise speaking, since Australia tends to be ahead of most of the world in terms of timezones), as he released a full album that thematised his recent romantic break-up with another newly emerged popular musician, Tate McRae from Canada. This was actually reportedly a quite recent musical change, as Howard was in the works for an entirely different album prior to the event and decided to scrap the project, opting to carry over merely a few songs from the initial recordings and instead reinventing the wheel to create an album he could relate more to.
The end result of this development is BEFORE I FORGET, a record comprised of lower-energy songs that reflect on the thoughts, revelations and feelings of heartbreak that come with the experience of an interpersonal fallout. Though primarily led by Kid Laroi's processed singing atop relatively standard mainstream instrumentals, glimpses of other genres such as R&B are also to be found scattered around the collection of songs like shells on a beach, giving the songs more of a kick to them. The vocal performances across the tracks vary in quality and ability to express the emotions at play, with some showcases from Kid Laroi sounding legitimately authentic and emblematic of these feelings whilst others fall more on the end of dejection and apathy more than anything.
While there are a few tracks that manage to capture enough spirit within their musicality and lyricism to shine through as memorable songs that are packaging a freshly bleeding heart in an art form, a big chunk of the album fails to reach this impact and falls flat as background noise that vaguely hint back at themes and sentiments already much better expressed in other songs within the same record and don't provide anything new to catch one's ear and garner enough attention to be more than just glanced at.
It seems as if Kid Laroi's personality has a hard time truly shining through in the work he himself wrote and had creative control over, and though it's certainly not a matter of doubting the sincerity and legitimacy of his lyrics and described experiences being real to him, but rather an approach at executing this in a musical form that would explore these themes in an interesting way or at least create something others could connect to that simply didn't pan out, the truth of the matter is that there is simply a factor missing in the equation to fully get one invested here. Or perhaps the concept break-up songs simply doesn't mesh well with Howard's style of music - who knows. Certainly not without its ideas or even moments of greatness, but overall not a piece I found sufficiently interesting to connect with on an emotional angle.