Tyler, The Creator

IGOR

By closing the door on the philosophies and musical approaches he used to take, Tyler discovers an open window, leading him to new, peaceful strength and mastery of his craft.

The productions are as nuanced and judiciously tricked out as they are on the previous album, adjusted to enhance all the agitation and grief, yet it's all ear candy -- spiraling synthesizers, vaguely psychedelic flourishes, and bumping drums galore. Roll down the windows, crank it, and keep the tissue on the armrest.

Tyler, The Creator’s newest effort, IGOR, demonstrates just how gifted the 28-year-old artist really is.

Within the framing of Tyler, the Creator, IGOR does feel like a triumph, the best of both worlds, a balance between the crazy kid he was and the precariously stable adult he’s still trying to become.

IGOR is easily one of the best breakup albums of the decade.

On IGOR, Tyler is at his most vulnerable and heartfelt, and it suits him perfectly.

On IGOR, Tyler showcases a more polished iteration of the hazy pop he’s been perfecting for years.

Igor is a triumph, another feather in the cap of an artist whose real aim has always been to emote, not provoke, and who has made his vulnerability an expansive palette from which to draw in an exploration of the shades and contours of his own emotional canvas.

With his sixth album ‘Igor’ Tyler again not only pushes himself, but what hip-hop should be in 2019.

In a tight but varied 39 minutes, Tyler is exploring the sonic terrain in Flower Boy with a narrative concept that, like a non-relationship, feels endless and all-encompassing, then hard not to put on repeat.

Tyler, the Creator’s sixth album is impressionistic and emotionally charged, the result of an auteur refining his style and bearing more of his soul than ever before.

Across IGOR, he achieves a happy balance by tempering his wonky song structures bordering on the surreal and dogged pursuit of synthgasms with a clear narrative arc and careful calculated swerves in tone and texture.