Tyler, the Creator recently said in an interview with Travis Smiley, “I’m smart, I’m annoying, and obnoxious; I’m very creative and borderline genius and I think other people are seeing that, or are starting to see the other good points.” I’ll admit, as an Odd Future fan, I could never get behind the show Loiter Squad, but as an artist, I admired Tyler’s curiosity. Each album he released progressed with maturity, and it was evident on Wolf. The track “Treehome95” has a smooth jazz sound and a nice overlaying texture. Cherry Bomb on the other hand, came with more misses then his prior releases.
The album begins with the track “DEATHCAMP,” which pretty much sounds like “Lap Dance,” by N.E.R.D except it has high guitar rifts to change the overall vibe and tempo. The second half goes in and off of this ambient clap loop. I thought the instrumental was solid, but Tyler doesn’t sound loud enough. “Pilot,” another track on the album, fails because of the distortion and Tyler’s voice playing second fiddle. I feel like he was trying to say something but all I got was static.
The whole album doesn’t have one consistent sound. After two adrenaline shots in “Pilot,” and “Run,” the album hits us with a soulful jazz instrumental in “Find Your Wings,” that has nice hypnotic vocals to it. This track is definitely a highlight of the album. The one track I really fucked with though was “Fucking Young/Perfect.” A nice soulful melody, while Tyler adds a premise that goes in two directions. It’s comical at points, but at the same time it works as one of those unrequited love songs.
Looking at this album just on just Tyler’s production alone, I’d like to say the album would then have higher points then it already has. “Blow My Load, Buffalo, Brown Stains of Darkese Brown, and Smuckers,” easily have the best instrumentals that sound consistent and concise.
A big thing that caught me by surprise was that Tyler had artists go without a credit, especially on Smuckers, which Kanye and Lil Wayne are featured on. And without question, in my own bias world, Kanye kills it with ease.
There are moments where the album does exceed within the instrumental barrier but Tyler is usually coming weak on the verses for the most part, except on “Fucking Young/Perfect.” I don’t think the album is bad, nor do I think it’s good. It’s tolerable.
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