There's just nothing on here that touches the highlights of Goblin, and certainly nothing as finessed and original as the voice he spoke in on the magnificent Bastard. Again like Eminem, he knows precisely which buttons he is pushing.Ĥ8 manages to almost nail the sleazy R&B stylings of the best moments of Ocean's Channel Orange and also proves that Tyler can still come with some of the nastiest put-downs in modern rap ("You want a tip bitch / Here's my dick for gratituity," from Jamba, which also features some spectacular weed rhymes), has a flair for the surreal ("Sounds like midgets in the speaker every goddamn time you play this shit loud," from Domo 23), and his jabs at celebrities offer cheap but satisfying laughs ("Fucking sick and getting bigger, like I sneezed on Adele / Bitches gettin' touchy-feely, like they reading some braille," from Rusty).īut when he addresses his father again (on Answer) it seems he's already revisiting old ground, and the low-slung likes of Awkward, Cowboy and Slater feel under-realised, the lyrics relying too heavily on cheap jokes, swearing for its own sake, drug references and silly voices. Tamale, featuring Tallulah, is throwaway, but its baile funk rhythm and vocal are at least memorable.The aforementioned Jamba features some of the best lyrics on Wolf, with Tyler calling out his critics - and displaying an awareness of the possible charges of homophobia and other judgemental interpretations of his art. As always, Tyler's group emcee cuts shine. There are highlights – Rusty, featuring Domo Genesis and Earl Sweatshirt, has the swagger of cutting-edge underground hip-hop, unapologetically uncommercial.
Joining two or three tracks together into 'suites' could be considered conceptually adventurous, but here it feels lazy. Partyisntover / Campfire / Bimmer makes barely any use of Stereolab's Laetitia Sadler while IFHY, featuring Pharrell, is an under-produced half-step not without its charm, but never truly captivating. Nevertheless, quality control remains his greatest challenge – indie-rock loops limp through the tedious Answer, while Slater / Escape-ism, featuring Frank Ocean, feels like an offcut or a freestyle, with under-realised lyrics and unimaginative R&B licks. It's a deeply uncomfortable moment, which could be perceived as exploitative, and most significantly, a bit of a whiny sentiment from mister "I've got a four-storey house." Yeah, you told us that already.Īnd yet, as a producer and rapper, Tyler is one of the most gifted in modern hip-hop – an intoxicating mix of Kool Keith's flat-out weirdness, Pharrell's feeling for soul and dirty funk, and the aforementioned Marshall Mathers' adolescent brag-rap and battle-rhyme insults define his lyrical concerns, while the beats lurch woozily from lo-fi boom-bap flecked with guitar and piano on Cowboy, to loose-limbed electro on Jamba, to mental, in-your-face brostep/trap pastiche on the hilarious, unforgettably infectious Domo23.
Colossus, a song about the pressures of fame and obsessive fans, has other parallels with Eminem - it's pretty much a re-run of Stan, but rather than creating a clever, melodramatic narrative which both satirises and engages with his fans' obsessive nature, Tyler opts for disdain and played-for-laughs couplets about the fan having papercuts on his balls after getting it on with a Tyler poster.
0 kommentar(er)
