Tyler, The Creator is a 19 year old man, a member of rap trio Odd Future. This is Goblin, the second of Tyler’s solo albums, and it has possibly become the album of 2011 with the biggest amount of hype and high regards surrounding it, even before its release. Most of this interest has generated from the releases of singles Yonkers and Sandwitches, but how will the rest of the album fare?
The production is terrible, while this could be the result of a low budget, it could also be slight involvement of slacking on Tyler’s part, because there are many bands who have managed to produce a bigger, more ambitious sound with similar budgets. The beats are sub-par; they do not add any depth or excitement to the tracks. This may be from Tyler’s sole focus on the lyrics, that he has not contributed a lot of time on the rhythms, and this is where the album’s flaws are found, because there are some tracks that are instrumental, or very close to being instrumental, where the sound can be heard clearly, and it’s not the sound that is attracting people to listen.
The highlight of the album is the lyrics, Tyler openly writes about very personal issues in his life, such as family issues (his dad leaving, Tyler not seeing his mum often, his little brother etc) so while these create tracks that are very raw, it is intriguing to see why Tyler would release such an emotional album, though the constant references of Tyler pleasuring himself may be a device to draw the seriousness of the songs away.
Goblin does seem to give the impression that Tyler is trying to produce such a negative uproar to it, such as the comments about mainstream pop, where he references Bruno Mars and Hayley Williams in “Yonkers”. Another example would be the “disclaimer” to begin “Radicals” in which Tyler assures who’s listening that “this is all fiction” and “we should not be offended” about these comments. It just appears to me that Tyler is trying to draw the attention away from the personal aspects of the tracks, and trying to get people to go chaotic over the littlest, unnecessary comments such as the “Fuck Bill O’reilly” comment that quickly follows the disclaimer.
The guest vocals are also another flaw for this album, with the exception of Hodgy Beats, the following guests that contribute lyrics on the 8 minute long posse track “Window” provide sloppy, no-paced rhymes that make the song drag and seemingly feel longer than it is. Infact, Goblin as a whole is too long, many of the songs that span five, six, seven minutes could easily be condensed into three or minute songs, whilst retaining their message. There are many instances where the song has no direction to it and the beats seem to expand into nothingness, making it difficult to enjoy the lyrical work.
Overall, Goblin displays some fantastic rhymes from Tyler, though the beats and the guest vocals bring the album down too much for the hype to be understood. If the songs were shorter, then Goblin would become a lot more accessible to listen, but apart from Yonkers and Sandwitches, the other tracks feature too many flaws to grant an entire album stream.
(4/10)
[Little Comments] Tyler, The Creator – Goblin
Tyler, The Creator is a 19 year old man, a member of rap trio Odd Future. This is Goblin, the second of Tyler’s solo albums, and it has possibly become the album of 2011 with the biggest amount of hype and high regards surrounding it, even before its release. Most of this interest has generated from the releases of singles Yonkers and Sandwitches, but how will the rest of the album fare?
The production is terrible, while this could be the result of a low budget, it could also be slight involvement of slacking on Tyler’s part, because there are many bands who have managed to produce a bigger, more ambitious sound with similar budgets. The beats are sub-par; they do not add any depth or excitement to the tracks. This may be from Tyler’s sole focus on the lyrics, that he has not contributed a lot of time on the rhythms, and this is where the album’s flaws are found, because there are some tracks that are instrumental, or very close to being instrumental, where the sound can be heard clearly, and it’s not the sound that is attracting people to listen.
The highlight of the album is the lyrics, Tyler openly writes about very personal issues in his life, such as family issues (his dad leaving, Tyler not seeing his mum often, his little brother etc) so while these create tracks that are very raw, it is intriguing to see why Tyler would release such an emotional album, though the constant references of Tyler pleasuring himself may be a device to draw the seriousness of the songs away.
Goblin does seem to give the impression that Tyler is trying to produce such a negative uproar to it, such as the comments about mainstream pop, where he references Bruno Mars and Hayley Williams in “Yonkers”. Another example would be the “disclaimer” to begin “Radicals” in which Tyler assures who’s listening that “this is all fiction” and “we should not be offended” about these comments. It just appears to me that Tyler is trying to draw the attention away from the personal aspects of the tracks, and trying to get people to go chaotic over the littlest, unnecessary comments such as the “Fuck Bill O’reilly” comment that quickly follows the disclaimer.
The guest vocals are also another flaw for this album, with the exception of Hodgy Beats, the following guests that contribute lyrics on the 8 minute long posse track “Window” provide sloppy, no-paced rhymes that make the song drag and seemingly feel longer than it is. Infact, Goblin as a whole is too long, many of the songs that span five, six, seven minutes could easily be condensed into three or minute songs, whilst retaining their message. There are many instances where the song has no direction to it and the beats seem to expand into nothingness, making it difficult to enjoy the lyrical work.
Overall, Goblin displays some fantastic rhymes from Tyler, though the beats and the guest vocals bring the album down too much for the hype to be understood. If the songs were shorter, then Goblin would become a lot more accessible to listen, but apart from Yonkers and Sandwitches, the other tracks feature too many flaws to grant an entire album stream.
(4/10)