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CRITIC REVIEWS

90
The Line of Best Fit

Tyler always had a more nuanced approach to anger than most, but Wolf finds him touching upon sadness, success, relationships, contrition, and aegis as well.

83
Pretty Much Amazing

Wolf is often great, but there is something more lurking in Tyler.  The question is, do we care what that might be? 

80
DIY

It may not have the global appeal of his OF stable mate’s ‘Channel Orange’, but it is certainly his most accessible and enjoyable. As if he cared.

80
Earmilk

In all—though overly bi-polar at times with a clear struggle to balance maturity with Tyler’s hooligan rebel rap—Wolf is a well written, developed, and produced album, and a sure sign that Tyler The Creator is a growing artist.

80
The Independent

Wolf's mix of retro soul, moody synths and backwards beats doesn't add up to his masterpiece, but the fan-stalker narrative "Colossus/The Bridge of Love" is his own "Stan".

80
Exclaim!

While Tyler will almost certainly never outgrow life as a weird, hell-raising provocateur, Wolf shows that he's already growing into life as a smart, diverse artist.

80
HipHopDX

Using Wolf as a platform to let his imagination run wild while remaining accessible, Tyler, the Creator displays maturation on his own twisted terms.

80
FACT Magazine

With Wolf, Tyler, the Creator is exciting again: maybe not as the ringleader of the Odd Future empire, but as a producer who just turned 22

80
The 405

The noises and production are smoother, lighter even, but the lyrical content is infinitely darker than his previous bluster. There's a grand, overt maturation on display.

80
No Ripcord

There’s a lot more diversity in the sound of the album, and it’s there that Wolf immediately shines.

80
musicOMH

Tyler’s third album demonstrates that he does not need to rely on shock value alone to carry his music. We already knew he was a talented composer and producer, but Wolf suggests he now may just be the finished article.

80
NME

'Wolf' suggests Odd Future, far from being a flash in the pan, are set to grow and grow.

78
Pitchfork

Wolf is still the balancing act between gruff cynicism and juvenilia that we’ve come to expect from Odd Future, but these songs are more three-dimensional. Tyler’s more likely to aim for melody instead of menace. 


 
75
Spectrum Culture
While this album may be the last of his three “sessions” with his “therapist,” it’s a strong end to his beginning.
75
Crack Magazine

With his production style finally delivering on its early promise, and an ability to magnestise our attention with every line, here Tyler reminds us exactly why we started giving a shit about OF in the first place.

74
Northern Transmissions

Fans of MTV mainstream rap will eat Wolf up, but for those expecting a bold leap of maturity from Tyler, The Creator, they’ll have to wait for the young rapper to grow up.

70
PopMatters

This album is so enjoyable on a musical level that my qualms with Tyler as a personality are essentially nullified, but I’m not sure that will ring true for most others. 

70
Tiny Mix Tapes

Wolf is going to be remembered as the record that sees Tyler deploying his tact as an astute beat-maker and a producer more than allowing his reputation as a Satan-worshiping neo-fascist to swell any further.

70
Consequence of Sound

Much like real summer camp, there are moments of adventure, immaturity, boredom, love, self-discovery, and, of course, an underlying feeling that you don’t really want to be at summer camp anyway.

70
AllMusic

It's a fun album for fanatics, but the willingness to shock feels too comfortable at this point, so those who found it tiresome before will likely find it devastating here.

70
Under the Radar

It's complex, conflicted, and bipolar. Paranoid, even. Most of all, it reveals the harmless and empathetic character behind Tyler, the Creator's complicated persona. 

60
XXL

Wolf meets it’s own high expectations by creating an absorbing journey of Tyler’s imagination.

60
Rolling Stone

If you can get past that tic, there's plenty to admire on Wolf, particularly in Tyler's self-produced beats, where jazzy chords rub up against fractured noise.

60
Slant Magazine
Tyler isn’t there yet, but to prove himself a vital force he needs to move beyond certain issues, or at least turn his fondness for adolescent emotions and classic hip-hop tropes into something more focused and digestible.
60
The Needle Drop

Tyler, The Creator returns from 2011's Goblin with a much more ambitious and worthwhile effort.

58
A.V. Club

After three albums of unfiltered angst, the one-time wildcard now seems like a stubbornly static figure, an impression that’s supported by his monochromatic self-production on all of Wolf’s 18 tracks, which rarely build on the synthesized strings and tranquilized pianos of his other releases.

56
Sputnikmusic

Inconsistencies aside, Wolf is at least an improvement from Goblin (albeit minor); although, it will certainly leave fans wanting and wondering why an entire record of "Yonkers" or "Domo23" can't happen.

50
SPIN

His increasing fame has made him (more) bitter and walled-off; his insistence on still shocking us threatens to reduce him to a joke.

43
Entertainment Weekly

Since his buzzy 2010 debut, Odd Future’s Tyler has been eclipsed by both Grammy-winning pal Frank Ocean and a bevy of co-opting MCs. Rather than reclaim his place, Wolf’s disengaged haunted-house funk plods joylessly through empty rage and squirmy homophobia.

40
The Skinny

There's a pretty strong six track EP in here, but at sixteen tracks, Wolf is mostly flab and fluff.

40
NOW Magazine

Wolf is where he should’ve reasserted himself within this new context. Instead, he seems bent on making a career out of his adolescent emotional turmoil, resulting in a thematically stagnant, myopic and ultimately immature record.

28
Beats Per Minute

Wolf succeeds magnificently at alienating the casual listener, but Odd Future die-hards will certainly find more things to love on this record than I have. 

Bobby792003
71

“Talking about rape and cutting bodies up, it just doesn't interest me anymore … what interests me is making weird hippie music for people to get high to.” Tyler says in an interview with Spin. Now rich and admired by his peers, he releases ‘Wolf’ and faces the biggest battle against himself yet.

Let’s start with the negatives. The album sits at a staggering 70 minutes long, so it can be very imposing the first time you listen to it. With it are a mixed bag ... read more

BradTasteMusic
70

Great bars under really uninspired production for the most part. It still carries this heavy cloud of bass that makes the album really tough to get through. Production was still better than Goblin by a reasonable margin. This album however opens up the overall appeal of Tyler. His Eminem influences here are still really prominent. He certainly improves from a goblin but it still suffers from some of the same issues. Overall a better experience.

PipePanic
86

Not only is the lyrical world Tyler creates here fun to explore and vibrant as hell, the music that accompanies this world is fun and punchy as hell, with many songs as explosive as they are emotional. A great concept album from hip-hops more creative figures.

Favorite Jams: Answer, Pigs, Tamale

Lest Favorite: Trashwang

BiggestWalrus
67

Like a psychotic breakdown every track. Kinda hard to listen to at times, but if you enjoy Tyler’s early work, or just more abrasive hip hop in general, this album works. Not a wonderful album, and not Tyler’s best, but a cool listen, and definitely unlike most of his odd future contemporaries.

smashxball
82

cult classic for the OG Tyler fans, answer ifhy and rusty were perfect songs, parking lot was kinda there, and trashwang kinda sucked, although it's better than the two previous joke songs on his last 2 albums (+ mixtape)

toastyseggs
82

Rating each track individually;

77 - WOLF
80 - Jamba (feat. Hodgy)
80 - Cowboy
Awkward - 82
82 - Domo23
93 - Answer
82 - Slater (feat. Frank Ocean)
48 - 86
Colossus - 89
PartyIsntOver/Campfire/Bimmer (feat. Frank Ocean, Lætitia Sadier) - 84
IFHY (feat. Pharrell Williams) - 92
78 - Pigs
Parking Lot (feat. Casey Veggies, Mike G) - 75
85 - Rusty (feat. feat. Domo Genesis, Earl Sweatshirt)
67 - Trashwang (feat. Na-Kel Smith, Jasper Dolphin, Lucas Vercetti, L-Boy, Taco, Left Brain, Lee ... read more

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Track List

1WOLF
1:50
76
2Jamba
3:32
feat. Hodgy
81
3Cowboy
3:15
79
4Awkward
3:47
80
5Domo23
2:38
81
6Answer
3:50
93
7Slater
3:53
81
848
4:07
86
9Colossus
3:33
88
10PartyIsntOver/Campfire/Bimmer
7:18
82
11IFHY
5:19
91
12Pigs
4:14
78
13Parking Lot
3:53
73
14Rusty
5:09
88
15Trashwang
4:42
63
16Treehome95
3:00
77
17Tamale
2:46
82
18Lone
3:57
86
Total Length: 1 hour, 10 minutes

Year End Lists

#17/Clash
#79/Crack Magazine
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Added on: February 14, 2013