Album Review

The Australian star has said he scrapped an entire album after a high-profile breakup, but the LP he made to replace it feels listless

The Kid LAROI was in a state of romantic bliss when he started his second studio album. “And no words that I could say will ever explain the way I feel with you,” he sings on “I’m So In Love With You,” with the devotion of a man delivering unbreakable vows. It’s the only song that survived the purge when the newly heartbroken 22-year-old singer scrapped the entire album he’d been making, tentatively titled Watch This! In its place, LAROI recorded Before I Forget.

When he announced this 15-track album in November, he told Variety that he spent three months recording it with “a lot more direction” (read: a fresh breakup). It’s sadder and more emotional than the music he’d initially recorded, he said, which included 2025 singles “How Does It Feel?” and “She Don’t Need to Know.” Those tracks, neither of which appear on this album, were rich with personality and charm — sides of LAROI that rarely get enough play. He needs moments like that to cut through the Bieber-isms that often loom over his artistic identity. 

Before I Forget is largely devoid of the feeling that LAROI could really be bringing something special to pop. It’s a melancholic record that succinctly captures his emotional turmoil in the present moment, but reveals little about what comes after his tears have dried — not just in love, but in his career. 

There are moments on Before I Forget that make the case that counting LAROI out now would be a mistake. “Private” is luminous, a grooving alternative pop standout about navigating a relationship in the public eye. “Could have worked it out, ’cause I know it was bad but it could have been worse somehow,” he sings. “And everything that we built we just watched them burn it down.” LAROI steers the song with a commanding presence, bending the production to his dejected musings. 

The nostalgic R&B single “A Perfect World” is LAROI’s most cutting account of the steady deterioration of a relationship and his hope for reconciliation. When he sings “Can I just be straight up?” at the start of the bridge, it’s less of a genuine question and more of a warning that he’s over talking around what’s really bothering him. “I don’t wanna talk unless you really wanna say shit.” That grit gives him an edge, something that says he isn’t just going through the motions. To his credit, “A Perfect World” is one of the few LAROI singles that feels disinterested in being a hit. It’s a song that’s more about building the narrative of the album than his position in pop. That it benefits both is a bonus.