“Chromakopia” is Tyler, the Creator’s seventh album and his most successful in terms of the style. While I do think there are some songs that don’t work at all, the overall style of the album carries it.
Tyler, the Creator is one of the more unique artists in the hip-hop/rap genre. Even the rollout for this album oozes Tyler’s style, as it seemingly came out of nowhere and was dropped at 7 a.m. on a Monday.
This makes it Tyler’s most definitive album. While on previous albums, you can feel him wearing his influences on his sleeve, here, it feels like his own thing completely. When an artist finally makes something completely themselves, it is a very satisfying thing to see and listen to and “Chromakopia” does that.
The opening is strong, and it immediately grabs the listener. From the opening track, “St. Chroma,” you can immediately detect Tyler’s distinct style and how he has control over it. The beat is engaging and the lyrics have you singing along after the first listen. I thought it was very catchy.
This doesn’t change across the first six songs, the standout of which is “Darling, I.” This has the catchiest beat and chorus of all. Another great song is “Hey Jane,” as the story it tells is great and that is a constant throughout the entire album.
The album starts off with Tyler talking about the paranoia he feels from the fame he has attained over the years. This is most noticeable in the first three songs in the album before it takes a twist and becomes about a pregnancy scare that he has experienced. These themes are heard throughout the rest of the record but are seen most in “Hey Jane” and “I Killed You,” with a great feature from Childish Gambino. After this, the album’s style starts to clash with itself.
The songs “Sticky” and “Balloon” especially demonstrate this clash. “Sticky” has some baffling choices that go against the rest of the album. From the beats to the lyrics, it tonally doesn’t flow well with the other songs. The features here are also not good and the song overall struck me as very goofy. I found that both “Sticky” and “Balloon” don’t work well with the rest of Tyler’s work on this album.
Besides this section of the album, the rest of it is quite exceptional. It is quite strange how the next song after “Sticky” is “Take Your Mask Off.” This is one of the better songs on the album and makes the prior song all the more strangely put in to me.
Style goes a long way for music, and this is one of the most stylized albums that has come out this year. That, along with the great lyricism and production on display, makes me think of it as one of the best albums of the year.
Rating: 8/10
