EXPERIMENTATION GONE RIGHT: REVIEW OF TYLER THE CREATOR'S 'IGOR'
Tyler The Creator recently dropped his new album 'IGOR' seemingly out of nowhere. Tyler The Creator is relatively well known for being unexpected, and IGOR certainly took this to a new level.
The first thing to say about IGOR is that Tyler The Creator has successfully created an album that cannot be categorized into a single genre. Obviously, new wave R&B and rap are the main influences, but there are sounds that stem from electronic, pop and even certain jazz and gospel aspects. The mish-mash of genres may seem confusing when reading it on a page like this, but in listening to the album it makes sense how they flow together. Tyler The Creator has very cleverly combined older traditional sounds such as jazz instruments and layered feminine vocals with very forward thinking beats and electronic instrumentals to create something that seems familiar yet brand new. It very much is a combination that has to be listened to to be believed. A stand-out track that shows this genre mix perfectly is 'The Boy Is A Gun', which takes a slow rap song and combines it with all sorts of other features whilst still having the soul and vibe of an old school R&B or jazz track.
One way that IGOR is especially powerful is in the way that is so unbelievably cohesive, despite the mix in genres that have previously been discussed. You can tell that this album was created as a single body of work, rather than simply taking 12 different tracks and shovng them together. It's clearly a work that needs to be listened to in order and not on shuffle, as each song flows cleverly into each other, with barely any points where the sound itself actually stops. There's something very special about albums that work in this way, and you can tell the amount of thought and attention that went into making the album sound right as a whole. Each track is different enough to be distinguishable but similar enough that you don't always notice when one track slides into another. Albums like this are now very rare, so it's nice to see an artist take on the challenge of making the album a single piece of art.
It's also rare nowadays that you get an album where the lyrics aren't the thing that the listener focuses on. Although there are a few tracks on the album, such as 'Puppet' where the lyrics are the focal point, this is not the case for every single one. There is a huge focus on the production of the songs and the instrumentals. This is by no means saying that the vocals and lyrical content aren't great, it just seems that in some tracks it takes a back seat to the story that the instrumentals are telling. It takes a really good musician and production team to make the instrumentals and sounds just as interesting, if not more interesting than the vocals, and the fact that Tyler The Creator claims to have done it all himself is outstanding.
Also, if you're wondering why not many tracks have been talked about specifically, it's because of what has been said earlier: the album is best listened to at a whole. it's difficult to pick out specific tracks because all of them are perceived best when in context of the rest of the album.
Artists often make the mistake of going to experimental for their own good, but this does not apply to Tyler The Creator and his album IGOR. It's an album that's incredibly interesting to listen to as you don't know what's coming next. It's futuristic yet traditional. It seems that moving forward, music is starting to combine with different kinds of sounds and mediums and this is exactly what IGOR showcases. Tyler has taken the genres he's comfortable with and twisted them almost into an unrecognisable form, and that is what good experimentation is all about. With artists seeming to be less scared of experimentation like this, I'm excited about the way things are going.
RATING: 5/5
Written by Ruby Crowhurst
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