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CRITIC REVIEWS

80
NME
His past albums have been weighed down by gloomy self-analysis, but here he sounds upbeat and free to experiment.
80
The Observer
Juvenile shock tactics persist, but he’s now channelling his puckish energy into some thrilling experiments and the more time-honoured hip-hop touchstones Tyler brings into the mix – from Roy Ayers to Smuckers’ multi-platinum three-way with Lil Wayne and Kanye West – the more deliriously wonky it all sounds.
80
HipHopDX

For better or worse, Tyler is consistently trumping the opinions of tastemakers. Cherry Bomb is less theme-based than past releases; rather an amalgam of the artist’s varied ingenuity to date.

80
XXL

Cherry Bomb is both sinister and playful; impressive and all over the place ... Cherry Bomb is his greatest achievement thus far, solidifying his place in the game, with or without the conspicuously absent Odd Future crew. 

70
AllMusic

Returning customers who like Tyler the ringleader, or Tyler the producer, will find this to be too much of a good thing, and can embrace the free-form Cherry Bomb as another freaky trip worth taking.

70
Clash

When Tyler allows these strengths to shine through, 'Cherry Bomb' is provided with its best moments. If anything, the album is held back by his ambition – imprudent testing falls short of his usual standards.

70
Complex

Cherry Bomb is Tyler's greatest creation to date. However, the album is bit of a mess in the beginning, and while Tyler's grown immensely as a producer, his rapping isn't consistently up to par.

70
Rolling Stone

Tyler still spends at least half his rhymes reminding us how few fucks he gives, and his bright new sound often comes spiked with petulant noise. But a certain humanity peeks through.

67
Consequence of Sound

It’s an album defined by contrasts: Noisy convulsions pile up alongside jazz and soul grooves, poppy melodies are offset by intentionally muddy mixing elsewhere, and Tyler’s foreboding growl is occasionally rendered cartoonish via effects.

67
Pitchfork

His greatest strength has always been world-building, using a synth-heavy blitz of candy-colored jazz chords taken straight (sometimes blatantly so) from the Pharrell handbook. Cherry Bomb isn’t exactly a hard left turn from this lane, but it is a quick swerve.

60
The Irish Times

Cherry Bomb is the Odd Future gang leader's fourth album and it's a noisy, rambunctious, unfettered, explosive affair, a bum-rush of energy, top-of-the-head thinking and musical prowess.

60
The Guardian

If you like Tyler, you’ll love Cherry Bomb. It’s a good title for this near-hour’s worth of fizzy sonics and lush eruptions of synths and strings.

60
Slant Magazine

He's a talented but conflicted voice, still frustratingly incapable of getting it together.

60
The Skinny

Ultimately there’s too much going on, and in what looks to be a vintage year for hip-hop, Cherry Bomb quickly scatters rather than leaving behind any indelible statement.

60
Sputnikmusic
Business as usual for Tyler, the Creator.
60
The 405

Perhaps because he has branched out in so many different directions, it should be no surprise that Tyler has landed both his best and worst efforts on the same album.

60
SPIN

Cherry Bomb is both impressive in its ambition and absolutely stunning in its aimlessness, weaving countless genres into multi-part suites but still coming off undercooked in its entirety.

60
PopMatters

Musically, Cherry Bomb finds Tyler taking a step in the right direction by ever-so-slightly removing himself from the world of his early albums and mixtapes, but it’s only a half-measure.

58
A.V. Club

At 24 years old, Tyler still hasn’t outgrown his teenage urge to alienate, and he still demonstrates the compulsive need to sabotage his own victories.

50
Exclaim!

Tyler's moments of flight on Cherry Bomb are sadly no more frequent than ones in which he's falling.

40
NOW Magazine

Cherry Bomb is rarely rewarding, but there are instances where this obnoxious fuck has clearly put some thought into what he's doing.

30
The Needle Drop
OF'S Tyler, The Creator comes together with an album of ultra-distorted hardcore hip hop and smooth, lush neo-soul.
Bobby792003
67

I really wanted to like ‘Cherry Bomb’, especially after the admittedly good ‘Wolf’. But, it has some problems that prevented me from doing so.

First off, this is WAY too loud and noisy, so I had to turn down the volume to save my ears. It doesn’t help that the first three songs, especially “PILOT”, were as noisy as they were, which made for one of the more interesting introductions I’ve heard for an album yet. At some points, it was so bad that ... read more

PipePanic
100

Fair warning: I know that I'll be the only human on Planet Earth who genuinely likes this album start to finish. I don't know what it is. Maybe it's the off the wall crazy production, or earth loud, abrasiveness and almost punk-esq rapping in some tracks, or it could just be Tyler's explosive personality. But for me, this is a fun and explosive ride that fully delves deep into the mind of Tyler, the Creator. Cherry Bomb indeed.

Favorite Jams: CHERRY BOMB, DEATHCAMP, BROWN STAINS

Lest ... read more

BradTasteMusic
41

The vocals are mixed worse than a Big Baller B album.

Oddly when revisiting this album it revealed a new handful of details that I didn’t appreciate/dislike before.

First of all the mixing on this album is the worst thing ever. The amount of shitty midi pianos that pop up in the second half is laughable. That’s the thing, I went from being offended to being intrigued and entertained at how fucking awful this album gets.

My big issue besides production is this album adds ... read more

toastyseggs
80

Rating each track individually:

88 - DEATHCAMP (feat. Cole Alexander)
80 - BUFFALO (feat. Shane Powers)
79 - PILOT (feat. Syd)
64 - RUN (feat. Chaz Bundick, ScHoolboy Q)
82 - FIND YOUR WINGS (feat. Roy Ayers, Syd, Kali Uchis)
70 - CHERRY BOMB
69 - BLOW MY LOAD (feat. Wanya Morris, DāM-FunK, Austin Feinstein, Syd)
85 - 2SEATER (feat. Aaron Shaw, Samantha Nelson, Austin Feinstein)
77 - THE BROWN STAINS OF DARKEESE LATIFAH PART 6-12 (REMIX) [feat. ScHoolboy Q]
HidDen traCK;
74 - Special
84 - ... read more

1leslieliver
25

Tyler fails miserably on this thing.
Favorite - SMUCKERS
Least Favorite - FUCKING YOUNG/PERFECT

72

Average performance. but the concept is not bad.

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Added on: April 9, 2015