Wolf And Its Creator

To say that Tyler, The Creator's Wolf was one of my most anticipated albums of the year is an understatement. I went through long phases with both Bastard, his mixtape, and Goblin, his first album that lasted months that likely annoyed more than a few people I'm friends with. And, like any good Tyler fan, I've followed Wolf's development as best as I could. I spent a long time playing the guessing game along with other fans about when the album would actually appear and hunted down purported twenty second snippets that Tyler would hide in the middle of mixtapes to play with his fans. Despite all my research into the album, I still wasn't fully prepared for what I would be listening to.

Early on, there's a point on Wolf when you can tell there's no way this will be like anything you would expect from Tyler, The Creator. That would be around the third song, "Cowboy". Before that, we have a two minute orchestral intro with the title track where Tyler's first word on the album is "f***" and he proceeds to sing, both terribly and hilariously, about how everyone hates him because he thinks they're "f*cking f*gs". Pretty much what you'd expect from Tyler.

But then there's the offhand comment at the end of "Wolf" where Tyler asks if one of his many characters likes Jazz. Next, we get "Jamba", an abrasive and catchy track that fits in with Tyler's expected catalogue. But after that we get "Cowboy" and things start to change. Gone are those abrasive and loud beats violently delivered by Tyler. In comes mellow Tyler. The jazzier and melody focused Tyler.

And it's not bad. If anything, it's impressive at the beginning. Then the newness wears off and it becomes easy to realize that while this may be an interesting new direction for Tyler to take, most of the songs in the middle of this album branch into each other without anything interesting happening. It ends up a bit boring due to the misfires that seem to be scattered within the gems. And boring is a word I never thought I'd use for Tyler, The Creator.

The worst part about this is that Tyler's misfires had the potential to be remarkably good, but it all feels a bit underdeveloped. The best example of this is "Bimmer" (a part of which was released with the lead single, "Domo 23", which is one of the few highlights of the slower middle part of the album along with "Answer" and the hysterical/creepy "Colossus"). "Bimmer" is presented on the album as a two minute idea that could have been fleshed out into a fantastic song. Instead, it doesn't go anywhere and sputters to a weird stop without having reached its full potential. This song alone sums up the entire middle part of the album.

Later the album pulls another turn and seeks to redeem itself. Once we reach "Rusty", the fourteenth track of the album (there's eighteen tracks on this album and it's seventy minutes long) things go to hell. Tyler goes off by the end and the album steps up the energy to keep up with him. Life gets breathed back into the album when it had been settling into its groove of half-baked ideas. We get the Trash Talk featuring "Trashwang" and the fast as hell "Tamale" that has one of the best beats on the album. By the end, it seems, Tyler has figured out how to make this new direction work. It's a bit too late, but it's something.

The most consistent thing on the album is Tyler's lyrical work. This album is a natural and an impressive step forward. The lyrics are introspective (like his last albums too, I'd argue, but that's for another day) and much more related to his personal life. This is particularly noticeable in "Answer", which is about the absences of father (this subject matter has a huge presence on the album) and the loss of his grandmother.

This is an album that is going to divide Tyler's fanbase. It goes against everything that Tyler became famous for. It's impossible not to admire his ability to change up his style from what made him well known, but at the same time it feels like Tyler is wrestling with the kid he once was and the man he's going to be. That will be what a lot of people are going to love about this album. They'll love hearing that struggle between these two parts of Tyler and I can understand that view. For me though, it feels like a great idea that never reaches its true potential. A little editing to take out some of the not so great middle songs would have helped the album pacing wise.

While, Wolf, with all of the hype that surrounded it, didn't manage to live up to the expectations bestowed upon it there are so many interesting ideas on this album. Parts of Tyler's music, like his lyrics and use of melody, have grown so much that it's not hard to be excited for his next album, especially considering the fantastic ending of Wolf where everything comes together so well.

So here I am. A bit disappointed with what Tyler has delivered, yet just as excited for what's next as I was for Wolf. Only he could manage to do that. Give Wolf a shot. There's a lot worth admiring here even if it doesn't live up to your expectations. Tyler is one of the few people that's so talented that if his albums aren't that great, he still finds a way to be worthy of attention.