The Perfect Balance — Why I Love Tyler, The Creator’s “Wolf”
April 2nd, of this year, marked the 8th anniversary of Tyler’s 3rd album, Wolf. I took the evening to have a listening party with some close friends and I was swept away. I walked away from it with the definitive conclusion that Wolf is my favorite album from Tyler. I thought that I would explain why:
Now, if I am being honest, I am 100% biased towards this album. It was really the first Tyler album I truly listened to. I’m a fairly recent fan of him and just started listening to him early last year. I had listened to a bit of Igor, but I don’t think I really got it. His performance at the Grammys last year is what really piqued my interest in him. I had never seen anything so unabashedly unique — it was totally his vision and he didn’t care if the public thought it was odd. A while later I was in my local music shop with my brother and I came across Tyler’s CD section. My brother was a pretty OG fan of Tyler and convinced me to pick up Wolf — and boy am I ever glad I did. It sounds corny and stupid, maybe even a little bit pretentious, but this album changed me. It changed how I listened to music and viewed an album. Before this, I picked a few songs from artists I liked and put them on a playlist. Wolf helped me see the value in an album as a whole. For that, I will forever be grateful.
For me, Wolf feels like the true turning point for Tyler. It keeps the bombastic energy of earlier releases while giving a glimpse into his more pensive and beautiful side that he is known for today. His composition skills really got the chance to flourish on this album. I’m consistently blown away by the instrumentals of Wolf. I would be absolutely ecstatic if he were to release Wolf instrumentals as he did with Cherry Bomb. The variety, and how unorthodox some of the choices of instruments are amazing to me. Like, who would have thought that the haunting bass clarinet melody of Lone would fit on an album with a song like Tamale, with its upbeat, bright percussion and absurd subject matter — and right after one another no less!
While, of course, in previous projects, Tyler has put himself into the music, in Wolf it seems like it's one of the first times we really get a glimpse into his head and how his sudden rise to stardom affected him. The story of this album is told through the lens of a lakefront summer camp with a brewing love triangle threatening to disturb the peaceful summer. Honestly, I’m in love with how this album sets the stage. When I’m listening to it, I really feel the summer in my mind. I can feel the cool wind rushing past my cheeks in the warm summer evenings while riding my bike in Slater and the dreamy peace that can be found in the late nights when it's just you and a few friends in Campfire. When I listen to this album, I feel like I’m transported right back to when I heard it — which just so happened to be in the summertime.
Wolf represents a balance to me. It retains some of the crude humor with loud, energetic songs like Trashwang or Jamba while showing us what is to come in future projects with the mellower side of the album with songs like Answer, which really gives us some insight into Tyler’s point of view on his absent father. We get a more mature version of what the old Tyler is as we see him blossoming into the musician we know him as today.
I honestly love all of Tyler’s work, but Wolf stands out to me as one of his most enjoyable albums. The lush instrumentals, balance of bangers and introspective pieces (which also tend to be on the banger side), and setting really hit home with me and showcases a wide range of Tyler's abilities. I know this isn’t for everyone, and that's completely fine (blah blah blah opinions and stuff), but I urge you to give Wolf another listen — it’ll be worth it.
Happy belated birthday, Wolf.
