Tyler, The Creator has returned with a new album, and as one of his many day one supporters I’m doing the same in the written form to give you a review
Pronounced Ee-Gor, as Tyler tweeted, he first teased his new project IGOR on May 1st with a snippet from the song ‘IGOR’S THEME’. At the time, I was left confused with this new sound Tyler would later give to us.
— Tyler, The Creator (@tylerthecreator) May 1, 2019
Post album release, Tyler tweeted a picture making a statement about the album saying something along the lines of this album is not his previous albums, this is IGOR, don’t go in expecting just another rap album.
But it’s very hard to not compare this album to Tyler’s previous work. It all clearly inspired this album in one way or another. I can confidently say that the main theme of this album comes straight from Flower Boy, the instrumentals come from Cherry Bomb and Wolf, and the vocal delivery is resurrected from Goblin and Bastard. And it totally works! This album is like Tyler’s Avengers: Endgame, we get returning themes but still – in the name of artist progression – Tyler carves out a new avenue for himself.
— Tyler, The Creator (@tylerthecreator) May 17, 2019
Right off the top there were no songs that I disliked, merely songs that I didn’t have as much excitement for, perhaps. As my Apple Music app will agree, I loved ‘EARFQUAKE’, ‘NEW MAGIC WAND’, ‘WHAT’S GOOD’, and ‘A BOY IS A GUN’.
You make my earfquake!
‘EARFQUAKE’ is by far the catchiest song from the whole album. Instrumentally, there’s nothing mind-blowing, we get horns, standard Tyler metronome beat, with snares plus synths. The obvious highlight is the vocals and lyrics performed by Tyler and Playboi Carti. A particular motif on this album is Tyler’s use of vocals, twisting them – or deliberately getting them to under-perform. Carti and Tyler purposely under-perform to make it sound like they’re listening to a song on their headphones and they’re just singing the lyrics out loud, even the chorus sounds like what Tyler thinks the chorus sounds like in his head – creating this day-dream-like tune and easy to sing along to. This song also comes with visuals that screams dress-up and karaoke. Great video and wouldn’t expect anything less from Tyler!
One of my least favourite joints from the album is ‘RUNNING OUT OF TIME’. It features guest vocals from Frank Ocean and legendary writing credits from the likes of Rev Run, Jam Master Jay, and D.M.C. (you know? Just three blokes… from the iconic Run DMC). Maybe I’m sour that this wasn’t my number one pick from the album, but the guests on this song should definitely be a formula for success that Tyler somehow didn’t utilise. Instead we get a topic that Tyler’s repeated in every album since Bastard, about just being yourself and how liberated he feels.
Slaps. Hard.
Now it’s time for a sponsored add break, brought to you by Senter Stage.
“I have a love/hate relationship with Tyler, The Creator. While his talent is undisputed, he has a long history of using homophobic slurs and that has turned me off to him. But when I listened to this album, I rediscovered what made me enjoy his work before I knew more about the man. It is more laid back than other albums but also has a feel to it of someone that is more in touch with who they are. I think Tyler has found a groove and if this is his new direction, he has a very bright future. And ‘EARFQUAKE’ slaps. Hard.”
Now back to scheduled programming.
Slightly sinister
Moving on from that note, ‘NEW MAGIC WAND’ is easily the stand-out in this album as the repeated hype song of the album makes an appearance. It’s grimy in genre and sound – proven by the drawn out and distorted bass, Santigold’s sharp and high pitch “don’t leave” lyric (almost sample-like) and fast metal spoons clanging-type beat.
Tyler’s vocals sound slightly sinister and then he switches it up to blasting them over a megaphone. Just before the fourth verse we get what sounds like a siren and a grunt (I imagine maybe the Igor character is up to something sinister) and then during the verse everything becomes more tense and fast, closing out to powerful horns. Comparing this song to the last hype song (‘Who Dat Boy’, Flower Boy) in which the intro gave us sharp and ghostly violins, in this song we get Igor’s laugh to let you know something bad ass is coming.
Love, with attitude
Another high note from this album comes from ‘A BOY IS A GUN’. I’m a sucker for a good sample, and Tyler absolutely smashes this song with a sample from Ponderosa Twins Plus One, ‘Bound’.
Interestingly the intro to ‘Bound’ has also been sampled by Kanye West on ‘Bound 2’ (also a great song). Tyler’s more classical sound comes out in this song with a high-noted piano that compliments the sample’s high pitch. Lyrically this song is about love (a running theme throughout both this and Tyler’s previous album) but with a bit more attitude, brought out in the frequent use of swear words and aggressive lyrics, “stay the f*ck away from me”.
My only gripe with this song is the use of gun sounds, personally I think it makes the scummier side of this song overbearing when it would’ve been nice for there to be an equal match between the beautiful instrumental and the daring lyrics.
Tyler, The Producer
Not much to say about ‘PUPPET’ other than to note that Kanye West’s singing voice sounds like Otis Redding which is no doubt accredited to Tyler’s skills as a producer. On the topic of making notes, IGOR’s closing track ‘ARE WE STILL FRIENDS?’ really does make me wonder if Tyler is the reincarnated embodiment of peak Soul and Blues music. The long church organs, slow drums, old-school female background vocalists along with Tyler’s use of his and Al Greens’ vocals really brings the last piece to this soul puzzle.
Overall
In the spirit of keeping this review at read before your boss walks behind you and sees you’re not on a work website length, I’ve of course missed out a few songs. But overall this project is definitely a win in my books for Tyler’s discography. He subs out the smart but mainstream vocals he could of gotten from his guests for a more experimental sound that totally works in the context of this album. Like I said up top, he continues some of the same concepts on from Flower Boy but blends them up with the rest of his past work to create the great IGOR, which is why I’m giving this album a 4 out of 5.
It’s been ya boi, City Soi Boi, signing out of Tyler, The Creator’s IGOR.
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