The album begins surprisingly with a Soulful number which is brought straight back into Tyler’s world when he utters the album’s first vocals: “fuck”. It doesn’t take long until Tyler’s mickey taking side pops up, almost belittling the WOLF alias that he has become famous for, “Look, Wolf,Prairie Dog, Ronzell, Whatever the fuck your name is…” Sam aka Tyler utters on the tracks outro.
“now my balls, balls deep in this broad’s jaws, swallow girl, it’s just nutt’n” – Tyler, The Creator on “Jamba”
While it’s good to see that Tyler collaborating with his fellow Odd Future bredrins, Hodgy Beats’ verse on “Jamba” is weak, another verse from Tyler would have been far more entertaining. There’s no real subject matter or theme to this song but it is entertaining on the hole.
“Address my little dick as Ike, twenty says I hit your wife” – Tyler, The Creator on “Cowboy”
Tyler is surprisingly open about his first love on the appropriately titled “Awkward”. He goes into detail about the emotions he went through when she got him ‘sprung’ as he puts it. This is not the most entertaining thing that you’ll hear from Tyler, but it is definitely is one of the most open songs he has written.
This subject is revisited on “IFHY”, but while “Awkward” was retrospective “IFHY” feels like it’s set alot more in the present time. The song is a bit more like a messed up love poem. This was the album’s second single and it was an odd choice although the video was quite entertaining. And hearing Tyler alongside his idol Pharrell Williams is nice.
“sorry I’m passive aggressive for no goddamn reason”
– Tyler, The Creator on “IFHY”
WOLF’s first single was the interestingly titled “Domo23”. A song on which Tyler’s eccentric side appears in all its glory. There’s shots at domestic violence groups, Rodney King, One Direction and of course the obligatory slurs that can be expected with Odd Future’s music.
“shit’s going down
Just like Rodney King’s swimming lessons”
“Answer” is another of the album’s more open songs, here Tyler speaks about his relationship with his Dad. Not only does he call his father a ‘Nigerian fuck’, but Tyler also claims that he will change his surname such is his hatred for his father, “The fuck is an Okonma? I’m changing my shit to Haley.” The concept and production on this song should be applauded, what will be interesting is to see if in ten or twenty years from now Tyler regrets some of the things he said on this song.
At times Tyler sounds like Eminem and “Colossus” carries a lot of similarities to Marshall Mathers’ “Stan”. But Tyler’s song sounds alot like him moaning about his fans becoming starstruck and their lack of knowledge of his back catalogue. One listen of this song is one more than is necessary for that reason.
“I’m harder than DJ Khaled playing the fucking quiet game” – Tyler, The Creator on “Rusty”
The Laetitia Sadier assisted “Partyisntover” kicks off the trio of songs that are number 10 on the tracklist. The song is one of the album’s best and The Neptunes influences are clear, what a shame that it is barely more than two minutes in length though. “Campfire”, the second in the trilogy is one of WOLF’s worst songs. The production is dull and the lyrics do nothing for the song. Tyler did however save the best ‘til last with “Beamer” featuring Frank Ocean; this is truly one of the album’s highlights. Coincidentally this is also Tyler’s favourite song on the album. Tyler’s raps mention how his girls headlights and trunk reminds him of his car, a BMW.
I got 99 problems and all of them is being happy – Tyler, The Creator on “Pigs”
“what the fuck was that?” is how “Trashwang” ends and you’ll probably be thinking the same thing after you hear it. It’s almost like a part 2 to “Bitch Suck Dick” which featured on Tyler’s last album Goblin. Enough said.
WOLF’s penultimate track “Tamale” is one of the album’s highlights and should definitely be released as a single. Here Tyler is on point production wise and lyrically Tyler is just having fun – what he does best. Taking this into account the album’s most surprising song is “48” on which Tyler explores the effect drug use can have on a family by way of his drug dealing Sam character.
The album balances on the concept that there are in fact two characters which Tyler depicts WOLF and Sam. The latter of which keen listeners would be familiar with from Odd Future’s OF Tape 2 which was released in 2012. And those of whom who have heard WOLF and have an understanding of rocket science may have decrypted the fact that this album is actually a precursor to Goblin and follows on from where Tyler’s first album, Bastard, left off. Earl Sweatshirt is killed on this album and many of Odd Future are killed on Goblin explaining why Earl isn’t on Goblin (in the story at least).
The battle between the characters is confusing and works about as much as T.I.’s failed concept album TI v TIP worked.
HIGHLIGHTS
LOWS
Tyler’s new album WOLF is available to buy now on iTunes. You can listen to a stream of the full album on Spotify now.
RATING
