Following the immense success of the Grammy-nominated Flower Boy, hip-hop’s continually revolutionary artist Tyler, the Creator released his sixth studio album IGOR on May 17 of 2019. On Flower Boy, Tyler pivoted from his previous rebellious, anarchist rap style to a more sensual, melodic sound that marked his growth and refinement as an artist so far. Similarly, on IGOR, Tyler polished his skills as an artist further. From writing, producing, and arranging the entire album, this work feels and sounds like Tyler carved out a piece of himself and molded it into masterful work of art.
For this album, Tyler focused on the narrative of a messy, confusing love triangle between him, the guy he likes, and the guy’s girlfriend. The album’s structure thus details this relationship’s feelings, traumas, and resolution. This marks a major shift for Tyler as he really delves into his emotions– the good and the bad– with a truly bird’s-eye view that demonstrates a previously unseen maturity and elegance in his music. Though we never learn who this mystery guy is, we learn every crevice of the relationship from the vulnerability and love that Tyler feels to his frustration and anger. I think that what I really love about this album is how personal and intimate it feels. Every beat, synth, lyric, and melody is infused with Tyler’s bruised, tattered heart. He shows remarkable growth in this album not only in his lyricism but also in his production abilities. If you listen deeply to each song, you can hear how intricately and delicately every piece of the track is placed. From a piano run to a synth explosion, Tyler unleashes the full force of his creativity with all of its jagged pieces. At numerous points in this album, it can sound disjointed and chaotic, but upon further listening, you can hear how polished and decisive the chaos is presented.
Tyler was able to capture the unmistakable and uncanny feeling of heartbreak on this album. From the rage and the confusion to the softness and the bargaining, he crafted an album that illustrates every single shade of heartbreak. In the first few songs (“EARFQUAKE”, “I THINK”, “RUNNING OUT OF TIME”, etc), he speaks on the overwhelming love he feels and how he fits in this relationship. The lyrics– and production– depict his struggle between wanting to give all of his love and wanting to protect his heart. It really illustrates the frustrating juxtaposition of emotions we feel when we are more invested in a relationship than the other person. Tyler does this beautifully, and the arrangement in the background really corroborates the tone of each song while still working to create an overall album sound.
In the second half of the album (and story arc), he depicts his realization that the toxicity of this relationship and the fallout of his emotions. From songs like “PUPPET” and “I DON’T LOVE YOU ANYMORE” to “GOOD GOOD/ THANK YOU” and “ARE WE STILL FRIENDS?”, Tyler characterizes his ending the love affair and his eventual resolution of wanting to stay friends. In doing so, he gets at the album’s title: Tyler awakens this persona of “Igor” to help him deal with these intensely, negative emotions. Igor has been seen all throughout Tyler’s career as the mask he wears to avoid facing his feelings by putting on an air of antagonism and anger-driven lyrics. However, this does not last long, and that marks the central idea of this album. Tyler releases this Igor persona to truly face and deal with these emotions that are eating him up inside. This thus illuminates how he has matured as an artist (from not relying on superficially anger-filled lyrics to more introspective and deep-cutting lyrics) and as a person.
Some of my favorite songs from IGOR include “RUNNING OUT OF TIME”, “A BOY IS A GUN*”, and “ARE WE STILL FRIENDS?”, though I’m currently listening to and loving “I THINK”, “NEW MAGIC WAND”, and “GONE GONE/ THANK YOU”. This album, while still about heartbreak, simultaneously serves as a looking glass into Tyler’s transformation. He has truly bloomed, and I find that ability and the resulting product beautiful.
Overall, Tyler’s IGOR truly is one the best albums from an artist that has continually evolved and expanded his musical abilities. It’s exciting to see where he is headed especially with the release of his new deluxe album CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST: The Estate Sale.
- https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/tyler-the-creator-igor/
- https://www.forbes.com/sites/chrislambert/2019/05/21/igor-explained-a-guide-to-the-story-themes-and-devices-of-tyler-the-creators-2019-album/?sh=6b677b5c5927
- https://www.complex.com/music/2019/05/tyler-the-creator-beats-1-igor-interview
- https://djbooth.net/features/2020-05-20-tyler-the-creator-igor-one-year-later-vic-wainstein-interview
- https://pitchfork.com/news/tyler-the-creator-talks-igor-going-no-1-over-dj-khaled-im-so-proud-of-myself/
- https://genius.com/albums/Tyler-the-creator/Igor
Yet again you ace another review. My favorite sentence is the following one “this work feels and sounds like Tyler carved out a piece of himself and molded it into masterful work of art” it sounds like poetry. I did not know that Tyler the creator was such a sentimental and talented artist. I know him mostly for his fashion and close friendships with other celebrities. To be frank I first found out about Tyler the creater when he publically bullied kendal jenner for being skinny in one of his concerts.
I’ve always been a Tyler fan – though he is not my favorite artist, he makes frequent appearances in all of my playlists. His songs are so relatable and I just hearing the diversity of each piece he provides us with (I feel like he is one of a few artists I know who’s music never sounds the same between songs which I absolutely love). I have only listened to two of the songs in this album (“EARFQUAKE” and “ARE WE STILL FRIENDS?”) yet these songs are sooo different from each other. Listening to this album has definitely been on my bucket list recently, and this blog only made me want to listen to it more! Great job!
Great album review! You did a really good job analyzing what inspired the album and what it was about. I don’t listen to Tyler all that much but I have heard IGOR and it is an objectively very good album that took a lot of talent to create. You can really hear the raw emotion in his voice all through. Great job overall!