In 2017, Tyler, the Creator teased the release of his newest album, publicly remembered as "Flower Boy". The rumors swirling around the theme and purpose of the album were dialed down to Tyler announcing himself as either gay, bisexual, or something along the lines of stunning his fanbase and the masses who had, in the past, accused him of being homophobic and offensive. While not sacrificing his voice as an artist and auteur, Tyler bloomed a lasting project in Flower Boy that many who were originally offended or put off by Tyler could enjoy and respect. His maturity as a lyricist and a human was found with its release, giving Tyler newfound mass appeal and the foundation to express freedom in his coming projects.
He continued on through 2018 periodically releasing singles such as "OKRA" and "Potato Salad", featuring ASAP ROCKY, that were presented as throwaway cuts from Flower Boy and started to solidify Tyler's sound. Coming into 2019, many expected Tyler to have an album planned for release as he usually followed a 2-year schedule like most artists. While touring and growing his "GOLF" fashion company during the year, many were worried his focus on music had dwindled with no signs of collaboration on social media.
In May 2019, Tyler finally gave a sign of artistic life, quietly dropping an untitled snippet on Twitter and YouTube featuring a heavy synth line drowning in a concise drum set line. This track was later revealed as the opening track on his sixth studio album, IGOR, and promotion of the album was mainly confined to Tyler's Twitter account. As days turned to weeks, he kept the pace, dropping four more music video snippets of "WHAT'S GOOD", "A BOY IS A GUN", and more. The hype for the album's release encompassed most trending topics riding the coattails of Flower Boy's popularity.
The album turns out to be a strong showing from Tyler, presenting a character in IGOR that is made to represent Tyler's feeling of excommunication from pop culture and the rap community until the released an album that he knew the masses would love and want. His 2015 release "Cherry Bomb" was and is his personal favorite project to date, but with the harsh critical reception he received, he felt rejected by his own kind. The day of IGOR's release, Tyler posted the following message on Twitter:
He encourages listeners to submerge themselves in the album, and this encouragement serves the album's purpose well. With other projects such as Injury Reserve's self-titled debut album and DJ Khaled's "Father of Asahd" dropping on the same night, IGOR seemed to rule the airwaves with multiple songs reaching the streaming chart's top 10.
IGOR romanticizes the relationship between Tyler and the music world, often asking how he can make them love him or what he needs to do to earn their love. He concentrates this on multiple references to his love for life itself instead of the material things he craved on past projects. The project as a whole is glossed with heavy synth and pad work by Tyler, as he fully wrote, produced and arranged the album. His disdain for using his natural singing voice actually proves effective in this album's context, with the frilly pitches up and down giving his voice resonance over the multi-layered instrumentals he barely peeks over for most of the run time.
With minimal features such as Kanye West, Kali Uchis, and others, he focuses the topics and motifs on the project to himself with an album strangely even more personal than Flower Boy. At only 39 minutes total, the album is easily and best digested as a whole, and I haven't listened to a single song on the album without it being in the order of the full project's tracklist. It deserves multiple listens to hear the musical Easter eggs he drops, such as lyrical references to See You Again and the bulk of Cherry Bomb's tracklist.
While the topics, hooks, and lyrics on most of the album are very surface level, the album is very significant in its intimacy between Tyler and the listener. It is yet another impressive step in his career and is sure to be on elf my favorites of 2019. Please, if you haven't already, give the album a listen.
8/10
