Goblin by Tyler, The Creator
LABEL: XL Recordings
 
The hardest task modern musicians face is trying to remain as authentic as possible. Sometimes when things like anticipation and pressure take their toll, the quality of material put out by musicians tend to wane. This album, unfortunately, occasionally falls trap to said pressure. Tyler, The Creator has created an album that succeeds in its attempt to display his isolation and desolate attitude, but often finds itself falling flat to the lack of sincere chaos that made his debut so invigorating. But that shouldn’t take away from this kid’s talent, which above anything else, is overwhelmingly evident.

Tyler, the Creator, who’s now 20, is a rapper/producer/director and head honcho of L.A.’s Odd Future rap collective. 2011 has been a promising year for Tyler and his friends. This time last year, they were basically nobody outside of Los Angeles and the depths of the Internet. They released a slew of albums and mixtapes, including Tyler’s cult classic debut, Bastard, and Earl Sweatshirt’s magnificent debut, Earl. Odd Future began to finally gain some steam during the Fall and Winter months of 2010. They were featured in music blogs that get ‘mad hits’ like Gorilla vs. Bear, Pitchfork, and The Hype Machine, which eventually brought Odd Future’s music to a larger front. But the “explosion” of their popularity didn’t really occur until early this year. (Enter: “Yonkers” — see below). “Yonkers” was unlike anything most people have ever heard, let alone seen. Here was this skinny, 19 year-old kid with big ears rapping about schizophrenia, with songwriting that was bordering lyrical hilarity and lyrical honesty: “I’m a fucking walking paradox (No, I’m not)/ Threesomes with a fucking triceratops, Reptar/ Rappin’ as i’m mocking deaf rock star.” And the video only made it more infectious. It featured Tyler eating a cockroach, and a gruesome ending that involved him hanging himself. For all that it’s worth, “Yonkers” is arguably the video of the year, hell, it might even be the song of the year. However, as promising as “Yonkers” was for a new Tyler, The Creator album, there are a number of gaping holes in his sophomore effort, Goblin.





The album opens with “Goblin”, and like the opening track of its predecessor Bastard, it features the opening sequence of a session between Tyler and his therapist. The opening line contains a brief self-description of Tyler, “I’m not a fucking role model/ I’m a 19 year-old fucking emotional coaster with pipe dreams.” Throughout the rest of the song, he explains the highs and lows of his recent popularity, “Pressure’s on me like this top hat/ Bastard intro, how the fuck I’m gonna top that?” And it’s this realization that, for some damned reason, pressure is actually taking over him, and it has the tendency to really make some of this album feel forced. What made Bastard such a cult favorite was its I-don’t-give-a-flying-fuck-attitude. Unfortunately, there are too many moments in Goblin where we find lyrics (Shit, even a disclaimer on “Radicals”) where Tyler claims “it’s just fiction,” that he’s just joking. I understand what his motive behind this is—he’s been receiving a ton of flak for his homophobic, misogynistic, violent raps—but everyone who listens to Tyler and the members of Odd Future with at least some level of open-mindedness know that he does so with sardonic nature. We all know Tyler doesn’t actually drown women in tubs full of semen. And that’s what made Bastard so great, was the fact that his punchlines and gore details were not only hilarious and witty, but uninhibited. Now with disclaimers and lyrics saying the opposite, it becomes more fantasy than anything. Some of the zeal of such cathartic lyricism has been taken away with Goblin.

Though maybe a little insincere on the gore that made his group so refreshing in the music world, Tyler constantly finds himself on-point throughout Goblin. We find him revealing some pretty dejected emotions on tracks like “Nightmare” where he talks about the absence of love in his life: “Love? I don’t get none, that’s why I’m so hostile to the kids that get some/ My father called me to tell me he loved me…/ I’d have a better chance of getting Taylor Swift to fuck me.” It’s this kind of disclosure that makes Tyler not only enigmatic, but one of us. His inability to seemingly be content in any way makes Goblin a truly personal album. Another feature of Goblin in terms of songwriting is Tyler’s growing use of storytelling. In Bastard, tracks like “Sarah” had hints of a narrative nature that Tyler seems to be experimenting with on a larger scope in Goblin. The use of the aforementioned therapist character allows Tyler to tie particular elements and themes together throughout the album. For example, at the end of “Nightmare”, we see Tyler add onto the growing list of alter-egos. On top of Ace Creator and Wolf Haley, Tyler introduces Tron Cat, a sadistic character with no regard for human life. The character becomes such a vital role that an entire song is dedicated to him. “Tron Cat”, an album highlight, features another element of Tyler’s staple songwriting: punchlines. With lyrics like “Wolves I know you heard of us, we’re murderous/ And young enough to get the fucking priest to come and flirt with us,” it’s easy to see Tyler has a knack for knowing how to get devious giggles out of the audience. In the Frank Ocean-layered “Fish”, Tyler talks about the classic date rape scheme, “Slip it in her drink and in the blink/ Of an eye I can make a white girl look chink.” (The track then delves into a hilarious definition of “boppin’ bitches”.) However, the punchlines are few and far between on Goblin. There are certainly novel uses of humor throughout the album, but on tracks like "Transylvania" and "Fish", the 'humor' will have listeners rolling their eyes more than rolling on the floor.

There are some questionable songs on Goblin, though. “Bitch Suck Dick”, for example, is meant to be a parody of the boneheaded songs of artists like Waka Flock Flame, however, it feels dull on its attempt to be funny. Yes, the song is meant to be ignorant, but with OFWGKTA members Jasper Dolphin and Taco laying down ridiculously awful lyrics with a sense of timing that’s completely off, the song falls flat. (At least Waka Flocka can keep time.) “AU79” is an instrumental that never takes off. Its redundant, second-rate sounds are a microcosm of the production quality of Tyler, The Creator on Goblin, which can be very inconsistent. It seems as though Tyler is obsessed with the sounds of GarageBand, because many tracks on Goblin feel like they could have been done by any 15 year-old with an hour on his/her hands. It’s simply confusing to hear something as tremendous as “Yonkers” in terms of production and then hear “AU79” and think that it’s from the same person.

There was a great Tweet I read the other day from Andrew Noz, creator of the popular blog Cocaine Blunts and Hip-Hop Tapes. It read, “I think Goblin might prove to be Tyler’s 808s in some ways.” Maybe a few years from now, critics and listeners alike will look back on this and consider it a turning point. Tyler, The Creator is undoubtedly creative. His lyrics, themes, and motives are refreshing, and the kid knows how stir shit up. But the lack of focus on Goblin is evident, and expectations for Tyler, The Creator’s next album are going to be considerably higher. Though there is certainly a level of inauthenticity on what made Tyler and Odd Future so appealing at first, Goblin is not a step back for Tyler. There are sporadic wondrous, scary, and hilarious moments here. It's just that his development, or lack thereof, just seems stagnant at times. But remember, this kid is only 20, and he's done more in the last year than most musicians couldn't accomplish in 10. Disingenuousness and quality might be problematic on Goblin, but there is seriously nothing else out there like Odd Future: it’s becoming more about a movement, and less about a phase.


REVIEWED BY ADRIAN ROJAS
ADRIAN’S FAVORITE TRACKS: “Yonkers” • “Tron Cat” • “Corsicana”
Read more from Adrian on his blog, On the Importance of Being Rash


FREE MP3: “Yonkers (Lil Silva Remix)” (right-click & save)
FREE MP3: “French (Toro Y Moi Remix)” (right-click & save)