Early January is a time of upheaval, where people vow to make changes in the new year to improve their livelihoods and become better versions of themselves. Fittingly, The Kid LAROI’s sophomore album, released Jan. 9, is a collection of narratives on change, depicting the swirling emotions of breakups and young love. “BEFORE I FORGET” bottles all of these feelings into songs about blame, longing and regret before they can settle and dissipate from his mind. While not the flashiest of his catalog, and lacking some of the rap elements in his previous works, “BEFORE I FORGET” is an album with a clear story to tell.
The tracks on LAROI’s newest album are both the artist’s favorite and most personal of his works, emerging in the wake of his separation from pop singer Tate McRae in mid-2025. Already in the process of writing an album, he ditched all but one of the songs and started anew, using the album to unpack the factors that led to the end of his relationship and how he felt towards his recent ex. This focus led to an incredibly introspective and somewhat somber tone, reflecting on the ways he fell short and the pressures faced in the eyes of onlooking fans.
In the opening tracks, LAROI touches on these overbearing viewers, and blames the shortcomings of their relationship on his partner’s lack of trust in him. The opening track, “ME + YOU,” is confrontational in this claim: “I guess I'm just someone you got used to / Crazy part about it is that you knew that I would always choose you / So, how the f—k did you let them confuse you?” Here, there is a clear sense of blame, with LAROI firm in his belief that her trust in him faltered while he stood strong in the face of rumors and scrutiny from the public.
“PRIVATE,” the third track, is centered entirely on this premise, but takes a more balanced look on the pressures the two faced. With lyrics like “We feel the same kind of pain” and “Everything that we built, we just watched them burn it down / They put a strain on our love that we didn't deserve,” LAROI refers to the couple as just that, fighting together against their critics, both professional and romantic. In just these first few tracks, he holds conflicting views over the end of the relationship, which only multiply as the songs continue.
Throughout the majority of the following tracks, LAROI sings and raps about wanting to be back with McRae, despite the pain that he has endured. Although some of these songs can begin to get repetitive in their messaging, the point the artist is communicating is clear. The fifth track, “RATHER BE,” features the simple repeating chorus “Rather be with you.” Then, in the 11th track, “THANK GOD,” he details how he’s not ready to move on — “If I found another, I could never love her / The way I loved you, you.”
These moments, however, are interrupted by songs like “A COLD PLAY” where the singer laments that he can’t change his ex-lover: “It's really hard to accеpt the fact that I can't / Fix you, fix you, fix you, fix you,” interpolating the band Coldplay, as referenced in the song’s title. Evidently, there is a divide between the relationship he envisions they could have and the one they did, with each vision dominating in certain portions of the album. While the message to McRae becomes somewhat blurred from these swapping perspectives, the sense of emotional uncertainty is carried through the album’s 44-minute run time.
Approaching the end of the tracklist, “IM SO IN LOVE WITH YOU” diverges from the herd as the one song that remained after LAROI’s album purge. A more straightforward love song, and a nice break in the slew of emo-pop tracks that surround it, the listener gets a glimpse into the artist still in deep infatuation, providing a point to look back to when hearing other tracks. However, despite its more upbeat nature, the track still fits into the album’s theme, a way to hold onto that exciting “honeymoon phase” where love is idyllic.
Sonically, “BEFORE I FORGET” bounces between pop influences from The Weeknd’s layered vocals to Justin Bieber’s tone and enunciation and even notes of Frank Ocean’s flows, aiding in the self-proclaimed "nostalgic" feel of the album. Each track feels familiar in a way, and this notion builds on the reflective nature of the songs, creating an album that looks back both through its lyrics and composition. Further, the clash of the slow and sadder lyrics with a more comforting throwback sound creates a bittersweet combination, fitting for the inner conflict of a messy breakup.
Although this sound works from an emotional perspective, the downside is the tracks can begin to blend together, and altogether don’t bring anything exciting or very new to the realm of male pop. Even in the most alternative tracks from a musical perspective, like short, soft acoustic “5:21AM,” the chorus is the same sentence repeated with a singular short verse, dulling the otherwise engaging instrumentation. There is no one song that truly nails together strong lyrics with a memorable backing, leaving a lack of a highlight track to return to again and again.
Still, the honesty and vulnerability embedded in “BEFORE I FORGET” marks a clear divergence from LAROI’s pop-rap roots, with a greater focus on the emotion and storytelling. While imperfect, the album acts as a reintroduction to the artist by opening his heart to his listeners, and offering them the chance to connect to his dreams and shortcomings. Whether during late nights, long drives or simply while missing people and places of the past, there are moments for the audience to find pieces of themselves in this compilation of musical self-reflections.
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