The Best Song on Tyler, the Creator’s IGOR Is...

Last August, when Tyler appeared on the duvet of GQ Style, he told the magazine that the most important frustration of his career has been his inability to urge radio play. “I've been trying to urge on the radio. i have never been super successful thereupon , but that point will come,” he said.

Maybe that point will come and perhaps it Tyler The Creator Merch won’t, but it almost definitely won't come now. IGOR, the 28-year-old multi-dimensional artist’s (at now , “rapper” feels insufficient) sixth album, is 12 songs long, and none of the dozen lend naturally to the commercial airwaves. The album’s not neat enough for that; it’s too filled with conflict—packed with fragmented melodies and fractured feelings, beauty undercut by syncopation and devilish voices.

And yet, while IGOR may fail by Tyler’s own metrics, by any others it’s a powerful success. The very qualities that make it unsuitable for radio make it extremely potent in other contexts. On impression , it’s the simplest work of Tyler’s career and a number one contender for Album of the Year.

For what it’s worth, i feel Tyler, the Creator knows all of this. On the occasion of the album’s release, he posted a note to social media, instructing fans on what to expect (“...THIS IS NOT firecracker . this is often NOT FLOWER BOY…. DON’T enter THIS EXPECTING A RAP ALBUM. DON’T enter THIS EXPECTING ANY ALBUM.”) and the way to concentrate (“I BELIEVE the primary LISTEN WORKS BEST ALL THE WAY THROUGH, NO SKIPS. FRONT TO BACK. NO DISTRACTIONS EITHER.”). In some contexts, an artist dictating the terms of engagement therein way might’ve come off as overbearing or pretentious. But with IGOR, it’s easy to ascertain why Tyler felt the necessity . It’s a cohesive album, not just a set of songs—something that bears stipulating during this age of streaming and constant distraction. and therefore the post also might be read as an admission: that Tyler understood he hadn’t yet cracked the code to radio play, so don’t enter expecting catchy hooks and Max Martin production.

Rather, the note suggested he understood he had done something... else. One word especially stuck out: “MOMENTS.” Tyler asked fans to believe what their favorite moments were on the album, and articulate them if they ever cross paths with him. Moments, indeed, are a more appropriate frame through which to think about IGOR than songs. most of IGOR’s tracks either accumulate unexpected layers or sever from themselves at some point, and lots of do both. they need how of twisting into different sonic or emotional universes, learning new voices (Kali Uchis, Jerrod Carmichael, Frank Ocean), and getting pleasantly lost in themselves. If you listen together with your eyes closed, you almost certainly won’t be ready to tell where any given song begins and ends.

Memorable moments, on the opposite hand, abound. IGOR is filled with inspired contributions (Dev Hynes and Charlie Wilson singing together on the lovesick “EARFQUAKE,” Carmichael’s short asides, Mild High Club’s backing vocals on “GONE, GONE / THANK YOU”), bits of pure Tylerian humor (“'Bout to travel buck wild, nigga Steve Irwin (I see the light) / disgusted that Claritin, I'm on my third one”), and compelling bits of production (the propulsive, paranoid starting to “WHAT’S GOOD,” the Al Green-sampling euphoric closer “ARE WE STILL FRIENDS?”).

My favorite song on the album is that the one that, to my ears, has the foremost great moments: “NEW MAGIC WAND.” It begins with Carmichael deadpanning “Sometimes you've got to open a door to shut a window” as if it were a standard bromide. The Tyler The Creator T Shirts beat, early on, has such a lot bass it could shake an elephant. Ten seconds in comes a comically devious laugh. It includes the right yearbook quote, “My eyes are green, I eat my veggies.” A$AP Rocky’s recruited to voice the straightforward refrain “Like magic, like magic, like magic, gone,” but his voice is distorted such you've got to wonder, Is his presence just a flex by Tyler? And midway through, bells ring, and therefore the track threatens to derail—but then surprises by staying on track .


“NEW MAGIC WAND” is emblematic of the beautifully unconventional way Tyler’s brain works. He may hate his voice and blame it for his lack of radio success, but actually it’s his brilliantly bizarro mind that forestalls him from being viable therein stodgy medium. What makes him great is additionally what makes him incapable of achieving the thing he most wants to realize . It’s tragic, during a way; on the opposite hand, the romance IGOR tells suggests Tyler has bigger concerns.

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Tylerthecreatormerch Joined: December 19th, 2020