Who is IGOR, and why doesn’t he stand out like Tyler, the Creator did?
Off the back of a massively acclaimed album, Tyler, the Creator struggles to make his personality shine on IGOR.
Audiences have watched Tyler, the Creator grow as an artist, from the provocative teenager in Odd Future and his brash solo debut Bastard, to the maturing, self-reflective adult in 2017’s Flower Boy. And so it seems IGOR arrives not at the end of an arc, but on the other side of one.
Tyler appears to be aware of this, and takes the opportunity to explore a bold new style. In doing so, he unfortunately loses parts of his identity, replacing it with ultimately surface level themes of love, and an album that tries to make up for its lack of substance with explosive instrumentals, strange vocals, and messy synth leads.
IGOR opens to a single droning synth, followed by a driving hip hop beat and mutated vocals, finally climaxing in a crescendo of all of the above. This sets a precedent for what is to follow, as a majority of tracks will carry these motifs to a fault, pushing the boundaries of repetitive.
By the end of the second tack EARFQUAKE, a love ballad sung in an unremarkable falsetto to a familiar melody, I’m still waiting for Tyler to show up. Even though the following track, I THINK, is the first time rap arrives on IGOR, collaborator Kanye West makes his influence too obvious here, as Tyler sounds like nothing more than a demo version of West’s Stronger.
It isn’t until the seventh track, A BOY IS A GUN, before I feel as though Tyler’s voice has arrived in his own project. This track is both my favourite on the album, and signifies a change in quality for it, with the second half holding more of the abrasive and interesting qualities of the artist I was expecting. It’s enough to remind you what the rest of the album is missing, but not enough to entirely save it from its weaker aspects.
However, even in the best moments of IGOR, nothing hits harder than any cut off Flower Boy or 2013’s Wolf. The overall feeling I am left with is that I’ve eaten my whole plate, but I’m still hungry.
There’s plenty to look at in IGOR, just not a lot to digest.
Love and heartbreak are things Tyler has explored before, and has certainly done so in more interesting ways. It comes down to the fact that the themes in IGOR, and the way they’re presented, don’t seem to have much correlation.
With IGOR, Tyler, the Creator has taken a bold swing at a new style. His attempt to explore a new sound, despite not landing for the most part, is totally appreciated. Even though I don’t love the album, I believe it is ultimately a positive direction taken, representing the start of a new foundation for Tyler to build on as an artist dedicated to evolving. What I would hope from Tyler for future projects is that he continues to experiment while finding a way to let his unique individual voice come through more prominently.
