After three long years, Tyler The Creator has finally released his new album, Chromokopia, and it’s phenomenal—maybe even his best so far. This album focuses on Tyler’s new persona, Chroma the Great, and it completely took me by surprise. I genuinely think this is his best album so far, and when you compare it to The Estate Sell or Igor it really shows how different it is and how much he has grown as an artist.
Album
What I really loved about this album was how diverse all the music was, and how he used storytelling. It has a completely different feel than his other past albums. I think it’s because he always narrates his albums through a fake persona but in his new album, it is supposed to represent the true Tyler. This gives all the songs a really genuine and emotional vibe.
The first three songs, St.Chroma, Rah Tah Tah, and Noid, are perfect examples of storytelling. These first three songs are supposed to show the start of his career. First, Tyler makes promises about how he’s gonna make it, then when he does make it he becomes self-centered and talks down to people. Overtime he starts to lose it and becomes paranoid. These first three songs perfectly start off the album, it feels like the story of how he became Tyler the Creator. St.Chroma is a great song, when it first came out that’s all that was playing in my head and it felt like the perfect song to start off the album. Rah tah tah is not my favorite, but sandwiched between St. Chroma and Noid makes it 10 times better and adds so much more to the song. Noid out these three songs is probably my favorite. At first, listening to it caught me off guard but the more I listened to it the more I loved it. I loved the sample he took, the fact the song constantly rises, and the way it perfectly goes with the music video. It has so many small details that add so much more to it.
Going deeper into the album the songs definitely get more complicated and deeper. Songs like “Judge Judy”, “Take Your Mask Off”, “Tomorrow”, and “Like Him” are completely different than the rest. In Judge Judy, It’s a basic message about accepting others but it’s told so well through Tyler’s relationship with this girl. I feel a lot of people might brush the meaning cause of how the song sounds but I hope people really take their time and listen to it. It’s the same thing with Take Your Mask Off, it’s all about staying true to yourself which is a basic and relatable message, although the song is anything but basic. What I enjoyed the most was the melody, this song was really catchy and memorable to me. Tomorrow and Like Him are the ones that got to me the most though. Tomorrow is about dealing with time passing you by and everything that comes with it, like having regrets or deciding your future. This is a feeling everyone feels and can relate to. This song really resonated with me since it’s something I’ve been feeling as of recently. But the song itself sounds amazing, it’s one of my favorite songs on the album. Like Him was the most heartbreaking song on this album, it’s about Tyler’s relationship with his dad. What took me by surprise was the woman at the end talking about how his dad always wanted to be in his life and not to blame him. That left me speechless since I knew I wouldn’t know what to feel if I was Tyler. I think his songs ability to perfectly capture all the confusing emotions he feels make it such an amazing song and really puts you in his shoes. Also, the song sounds incredible, even though it came out weeks ago it is still stuck in my head. This is definitely the most striking and outstanding song on the album.
The rest of these songs stood out to me with how different they are from Tyler’s usual songs. Especially songs like Sticky and Darling I. Sticky is an insanely catchy song but I never expected to hear Se*y Red and GloRilla on a Tyler song. Listening to the song and how they each added their own creative spin on it was so good. At first Darling I sounds like a big contradiction, but when you listen in closer it makes more sense and adds depth to it. I also loved Though I Was Dead, Hey Jane, and I Killed You. Then at the end, the album ends perfectly with I Hope You Find Your Way Home. The song is somehow a mix of all his eras and alter egos. I feel like it’s the perfect end since it captures all the memorable things that happened to him and has this bittersweet feeling to it.
Overview
This album definitely shows Tyler at his truest. It is a 10/10, even if every song might not be my favorite. Everything including the rollout, the teasers, and the actual songs make it such an unforgettable album. This album definitely shows his growth as an artist and his variety. I would recommend this album to any music fan since there’s something in it for everyone. It will probably be a while until he drops another album, but I am so excited to see where he goes as an artist and I hope he keeps going in this direction.
