Review by Maranda Leecan
From the start, CHROMAKOPIA was an album unlike any previous Tyler, The Creator albums. As a longtime fan, it’s a long-known fact that Tyler has put out his albums two years after each other since Goblin. However, Call Me If You Get Lost: The Estate Sale was the first time we’d seen a deluxe version of an album, not just the instrumentals of the album added on. It arrived two years after the standard’s release and made fans unsure when Tyler might actually be dropping a new album in his typical tradition.
CHROMAKOPIA was then teased a little over a year later - with a video first, the album announcement the next day, and the album itself out in full a little over a week later. The album also arrived on a Monday morning, completely disregarding the industry standard Friday at midnight release. Its release was also paired with an industrial green truck that drove across the US, and was tracked on a map as it traveled to a few lucky cities for fans to interact with.
All this to say, it was clear even before the music was out that CHROMAKOPIA was going to stand out from the rest in his discography. As someone who’s been following Tyler since his first album, he is one of those artists that you can literally hear and see their growth with each release. From lyricism to sonic and visual inspirations, each album is a step up from the next. Whether you have a favorite or not is a personal choice but it’s no coincidence that every time Tyler releases an album, we’re always pondering if it’s his best one.
Each album also takes us deeper into Tyler’s world on his own terms. If you’re an actual fan of Tyler and his music, I would argue that you have no desire to find out anything about his personal life outside of what he puts in the music, considering he uses it to share as much as you should know about someone you don’t actually know. Flower Boy was the album in which Tyler really started to open up more about who he, the person and not just the artist, actually was and feeling - instead of a character like in Wolf or Cherry Bomb. He left the brass, edgy (and sometimes really offensive) lyrics of his beginnings behind in favor of more inner reflection. That openness to allow us as listeners in then led to the earnesty of Igor and CMIFGL, where Tyler talked about and through specific and detailed relationships, and also let Tyler break out into the mainstream.
CHROMAKOPIA now could be seen as the peak of that openness as he’s completely opened the window to us as listeners. Even though the storytelling is behind a character, St. Chroma, the character is just a mask as he talks about his real life. Tyler’s mother doesn’t speak on just one song, but throughout multiple songs in the album - narrating to us, when in actuality she’s speaking to Tyler and he’s allowing us to hear. “Like Him,” is a song that sticks with you from the first listen, especially if you’ve been here. She literally tells him, after 20+ years, that she’s the reason his father hasn’t been in his life. As listeners, we’ve heard Tyler talk about his father being absent and like him, we believed it was his father’s choice. To be let into that fact, in the same way he was - from his own mother’s mouth - is a moment I have not been able to stop thinking about this year.
The first time I heard “Hey Jane,” I couldn’t believe that Tyler was speaking so openly about something so personal, like trying to decide to keep a child or not. Similarly to another green album of this year, the lyrics on here aren’t metaphorical, they are conversational - they sound like you’re intruding on a conversation that you shouldn’t and it makes the music so personal.
In a year where Chappell Roan gets hate for setting boundaries, a song like “Noid” - along with its visualizer that sees Ayo Edebiri as a crazed fan - gives us insight into how the shoes are on the other foot. “Take Your Mask Off" is a standout for long-time listeners - as Tyler talks through many people needing to take their mask off before looking at himself. The literal ‘taking your mask off’ terminology also takes us back to “Running Out of Time” from Igor, where he originally talked about wearing a mask when ironically, Tyler as the artist doesn’t start actually wearing that mask until CHROMAKOPIA. The callback is there lyrically and sonically as well.
Sonically, Tyler knows exactly what he’s doing and he always has - that’s why the instrumentals for Cherry Bomb and Wolf are able to stand on their own. Tyler is one of the few artists that have clearly emerged as the product of studying and being a nerd about music while simultaneously creating a world and style that is completely his own. He doesn’t just try to replicate the music that he grew up on, he creates albums that serve that role for the next generation. For those of us in the same generation as Tyler, his music is a treat as fans of the music he grew up on, and as fans who grew up with him.
The vocals on “St. Chroma,” genuinely feel like affirmations from above. “I Killed You” has wonderful use of backing vocals, especially towards the end of the song that act like instruments for the song itself, reminiscent of songs that my parents would play and told me I knew nothing about. It’s clear that the use of real instruments - drums, strings, horns, etc. - are important to the flow of his lyrics. I could almost imagine being in the studio and seeing the drums on “Judge Judy” being laid down while he’s laying the vocals - that’s how tight they go together. “Sticky” was clearly formulated with care for its ability to be replicated by big bands, to be played by seas of black instrumentalists at HBCUs and more. The feeling that those performances and soulful music like this created in the black community gets bottled up in this absolute anthem.
CHROMAKOPIA as an album feels like another window into the world of Tyler but this room also has mirrors, and because of that, we see how different things in Tyler’s life (which we’ve learned about in all of his previous music) all reflect and bounce off of each other. We hear traditional collaborators like Santigold, Solange, Teezo Touchdown, and Schoolboy Q, as well as lyrical and sonic callbacks to older albums. We also see how he’s rearranged what we’ve known from him in new ways with new collaborators like Doechii, Sexyy Red, Glorilla and Lola Young.
He’s found new ways to share and put exactly what he wants in the music and leaves it there. The album ends with “I Hope You Find Your Way Home” which is an inspiration for those of us who have seen and literally heard an artist we love grow from release to release. Though we know Tyler as a confident, self-aware artist today, being self-aware means knowing your insecurities and faults, too. Instead of only boasting his accomplishments - like the collaborations he’s secured, the money he’s made, and the cars he owns - we get to also hear his reflection on this and it’s a treat, as a listener, to be able to hear him be so real and open. As the album starts and ends with the chanting of the title, CHROMAKOPIA becomes a loop, a full circle moment in his career that is now synonymous with taking your mask off, really looking at yourself, and transcending because of that. What a treat that we get to hear Tyler do that every single time we listen to this album.
Favorite Tracks:
St. Chroma
I Hope You Find Your Way Home
Balloon
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