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May 17, 2019 - Columbia
Tyler’s back with one of his new Creations. It’s fine. Long time and even intermittent fans will notice a stark departure from the idiosyncrasies that brought the rapper to prominence in the first place, and in their stead, he now says “Ayo.” This new non-catch-phrase may be short for mayo, or short for nothing. He is always polishing off non-sequiturs so who’s to say. For the time being, the Creator seems to have mostly sated himself with groovy percussion and interludes featuring some simplified melodics not featuring much rapping.
‘Igor’s Theme’ opens the track with a pretty cool beat which pivots around the snare hits, creating a circular percussive phrasing. ‘Okra’ is much better. It’s an enjoyable track that recalls of trip-hop predecessors, namely Fly-Lo in his less abstracted moments. The album quickly establishes itself as a romance with a quick look down the track list. Synthesizing Tyler’s dissonant attitude and love-pop structures, a line of admiration or a line of lamentation frequently returned to with (ideally) layered meaning built atop it over each return, ‘Earfquake,’ achieves poignancy with the help of a throaty chorus. This is a relief because ‘Igor’s Theme' doesn’t achieve much, despite having a sick beat.
Following Tyler’s cutesy trajectory, the album maintains an eclectic sense of continuity, with most songs beginning by finishing the previous song, only to quickly change directions. You could either consider it a parlor trick (since technically the next song is just starting before the previous one ends; rather than a genuine and stable bridge existing between the two Tyler just calls the outro for one the intro for the other) or you can enjoy it.
‘I Think’ is the first song on the album to feature any long-verse rapping, and it makes you appreciate the lack of rapping on the previous tracks. The instrumentation is funky and satisfying. A classic post-disco beep-boop and well-placed syncopation establishes ‘I Think’ in the sexy skating rink genre, which is usually enough to make a song into a winner. The next track is inadequately philosophical—the one after that too. I could go on, but what’s been offered up so far is what gets offered up moving forward. After listening to the first five songs, no surprises remain.
It’s good to see our lad taking less sardonic turns and twists—moving toward sincerity and leaning less on shock-value. Experimenting with multi-genre melodics and broken R&B beats, Tyler is reaching for something he’s not yet to grab. But when he gets it, it ought to be good. ⛰️