Music that marks a moment

When PipePanic reviewed IGOR by Tyler the Creator in 2019, the album was still pretty new. It was a project album and could go a lot of different directions. This is what PipePanic had to say about it three years ago. Do you have an opinion you’d like to share with us in the Comments section?

“It’s weird how we disapprove of stans for artists like Ariana Grande because they flood the reviews, but at the end of the day we are just the same.

Anyway, we Stan Tyler the Creator and his seemingly endless creativity.

Tyler could have literally done anything with this project. Like anything. Coming straight off of Flower Boy, the album that expanded Tyler’s potential from dark, distorted and demented persona to pop star in seemingly hours. So the question with this record, which had no singles and barely any actual tracks leaked before its release…what exactly was Igor going to be?

Well, more or less, this is Tyler the Creator’s attempt at a RnB pop album. Yes, you can say the exact same thing to Flower Boy, but Tyler usually takes the back seat on nearly every track, except for on the production. The bass heavy summer-esq and bright production isn’t all that experimental for Tyler (hell, this album sounds like every sound that Tyler has ever gone chucked and altered in a blender and shifted through a Pharrell record) but the production has definitely improved even from the damn impressive Flower Boy.

And this album was MADE for dancing in your room by yourself. It’s the most upbeat, danciest and ‘banging’ album Tyler has ever done. It sounds like if any track was played live, then people would both lose their mind but instead of killing each other in a mosh, it would start a new form of mosh: The Groove Mosh. Because that’s what this album excels at. The groove. The sound. Instead of lyrics that spell every emotional moment, it gives you the soundscape that tells you the meaning with the music. The anger, the fun, the sadness, and the love.

This might be both Tyler’s most experimental and most accessible album to date, and in a weird way this is like Cherry Bomb 2.0, but in a way that doesn’t feel like Deja Vu or too similar. Igor has his own identity, as a glamourous Disco King, but only time will tell if this finally breaks him into becoming a bonafide styled pop star. It’s Tyler at his most soulful, most aggressive, most creative, and dare I say…his best. It’s more interesting and out there the Flower Boy. It’s more catchy and successful in its concept than Flower Boy. Hell, this might be up there for AOTY. I’ll edit this if I change my mind.

Also am I going insane or is that Kanye on PUPPET?

Favorite Jams: NEW MAGIC WAND, WHAT’S GOOD, I THINK, ARE WE STILL FRIENDS, PUPPET

Least Favorite: EXACTLY WHAT YOU RUN FROM YOU END UP CHASING”

(https://www.albumoftheyear.org/user/pipepanic/album/152796-igor/)