REVIEWED: Goblin by Tyler, the Creator
Future listeners surely would have developed a much more liberal ear than the current crop of music listeners if to judge based on Tyler's output of today. Not to say that he is the first ever to drop jaw-dropping claims in his musings but as how (unfortunately) his age would have dictated, such colorful language from a barely-teenager-20-something kid surely is still largely absent in mainstream music of today, which then should make Tyler the first in the line. And come to think of how impressionable kids are, we could see a Tyler wannabe very soon. Consider that as a warning - a warning of what kind of state music would be in in, say, five years' time; and a warning of what kind of review this entry would be in in the next three or four paragraphs.
By this time we're pretty sure that everyone would have been pretty aware of what kind of language Tyler converse in - the kind that the elderly will find it to be extremely distasteful - and
Goblin, his second studio release, makes no effort whatsoever to even at least be subtle about it. Just like last years'
BASTARD, the album opens with a voice of "supposedly" his therapist, but he is there this time not in the role of a healer, of a person who wants to hear and understand what the main protagonist's problems or worries, but as a distant character who just aggravates Tyler's anger further. This time, Tyler is no longer attacking his father (like
"Bastard" and
"Seven") but he takes on a much wider selection of victim, including those who labeled his music as horrorcore. At times they are funny, at times they are slightly worrying.
Explicit language aside, lyrical subject matter however we found it to be at times inconsistent as Tyler switches from being all grown up and pissed off, dissing just about anyone that does not appeal to him, to being a simple-minded teenager whose main concern is about high-school-love type of crush (
"She"). Not that we disapprove of it (though we still find it to be cheesy, and we only dig cheesy stuff that is on a pizza) but if you want to be taken serious, make sure you carry it through from start to the finish.
Keep in mind that Tyler signed a one album deal with XL for this album and it kind of explains why there is this niggling feeling that somehow
Goblin feels more like a best of album. Let's just assume that, since judging by how self-aware Tyler is from all his musings, Tyler so much wanted to prove to the whole world that he can do it so that all his dissing would not go baseless that when he managed to sign that particular recording deal, he realizes this is the only opportunity for him to do so that in the end, he put in so much into that single record it comes out rather jumbled up. Again, it's just us assuming that situation - but what is not an assumption is the fact that this record is not focused. And this again is attributed largely to the lyrical subject matter of
Goblin, and the other fact that somehow the therapist would go absent after the first five or six tracks. Tyler, in his defense, has laid down a pretty solid groundwork for what is to be the trademark sound of Tyler, the Creator, and all applaud goes to him. Perhaps only on this outing, he lost his concentration halfway through.
As an introductory album to a much wider audience,
Goblin sadly does not do much justice to all the hard work that Tyler and the entire OFWGKTA collective has put in five to six years preceding this album. It's a minor let down for us because in our view, it's not a proper introduction to Tyler and what all the hype surrounding him is all about. For first time listeners, this might pass through your radar largely unnoticed (despite the strong words), but for loyal listeners (like us), with
Goblin, Tyler has a new album.
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