This strange smorgasbord of sound is shrewd, smooth and heartfelt – but has Tyler ditched what made him great?
Tyler, the Creator always said he didn’t want to be a rapper. Leading the generation-defining rap group Odd Future didn’t stop the young Los Angeles radical from regularly declaring that a career as a traditional MC would be a lousy fit. There have been explorations into other creative realms: screenwriting, fashion, film scores, app development and singing (he once said he was looking to Isaac Hayes and Barry White for a blueprint on how to harness his deep voice). It always seemed as if Tyler would rather do something other than rap. Yet here we are, over a decade since The Odd Future Tape, and the release of a Tyler, the Creator album is still an event.
After the mutinous, uncompromising sounds of his earlier work, the evolution of Tyler took a huge leap with the richer arrangements, languid grooves and more considered writing of his excellent 2017 record Flower Boy. Yet Igor, Tyler’s fifth full-length solo album, represents his sharpest stylistic swerve to date. With the focus more on sonic texture than song structure, the album is a smorgasbord of buzzing basslines, prominent piano chords and out-of-key synths. “Don’t go into this expecting a rap album,” he wrote in a statement before Igor’s release.
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