Monday, May 23, 2011

Album Review: Tyler, The Creator - Goblin



Yeah this albums been out a while now, but I decided to hold back on reviewing to avoid all the HYPE!, so have left it till now to give you my thoughts on probably the most anticipated album of the year so far. The hype for this album and the collective group before the album was released was incredible, every major music website had something to say about them and I even wrote something before it was "officially" released here. So this is the second album by Tyler, the leader of the Odd Future rap, hip/hop, skate group, he writes, produces his music and even directs his own music videos (he keeps reminding us Kanye isn't the only one who does this.)

So with all the hype it received has it lived up to the expectations? well I think it has to a degree, sure this isn't what I'd call a career defining album or even a classic, it definitely though is a strong release from Tyler. The problem I see is some have such crazy expectations on this album that an improvement on the last titled Bastard isn't good enough, it must be better. Well I think with a moderate expectations I had for this album I am more than enjoying what Tyler has produced here. One of the criticism's I have seen is about the beats, now I can understand why people might feel this way, but I dig the lo-fi crudeness to what has been put together, the beats give the album a raw sound to which Tyler (and company) shall rap over.

Now the album starts with a continuation of the last, the first track titled Goblin relates back to Bastard with the whole psychiatrist link that Tyler used really well in the first album. The much earlier released song Yonkers is next after this and even if I've heard this song nearly a hundred times (seriously) it still sounds as good as the first time, the lyrics are some of my favourite on the album with lines like "(What you think of Hayley Williams?)/ Fuck her Wolf Hayley robbin em/ I'll crash that fuckin airplane at that faggot nigga B.O.B. is in/ and stab Bruno Mars in the god damn esophagus/and won't stop until the cops come in." and "I'm a fuckin walking paradox/ no I'm not threesomes with a fuckin triceratops."

The album mixes it up to cater to multiple members of the group, the sweet, slower songs like She which features Frank Ocean and Her. Both are as deep as any other track on the album but without the in your face angry attitude that is what we're used to and at the very least he is definitely keeping with the emotional strain that he is trying to portray. The stand out tracks for me are still the ones released before the album, those being Yonkers, Sandwitches and Tron Cat, but songs such as Radicals, Transylvania and Analog are right up there are strong tracks.

The featuring artists on this do a great job, Hodgy Beats shines through as a big up and comer on this album, his verses on Yonkers, Sandwitches and Analog are some of the best on the album, while Left Brain does a good job on Transylvania. You can see the potential in not just Tyler, but also the rest  the crew which is great looking to the future.

Overall this album had the hype of a breakout album, it didn't however meet these standards. What it did do however is at least in my mind improve on this first album Bastard and at the same time continue to show the raw potential that Tyler and all those in Odd Future have, with a slight improvement on what got the hype started.

Overall Rating 8.5/10

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