First Review - Tyler, the Creators' Goblin

In the later part of December Tyler, the creator released his first album, entitled Bastard. The 18 year olds brainchild was an outrageous, disturbing and riot starting 100% true insight into the darker side of a troubled teenaged mind that has started a minor (and growing) cult across that world, that I loved. Like I said in my 'introduction' this blog is gonna begin with mainly reviews of whatever took my interest and Tyler, the creators new album is indeed one of those things.
          So yes I am a big fan of Odd Future and Tyler, the Creator, and yes a lot of their fans do unfortunetly tend to be very unrealistic and obnoxious about his releases, but I will endeavour to keep this review as fair as possible, whilst talking from a fans view, rather than a 'blogging faggot critic'.
          The album is set out in a very similar fashion to Bastard with Tyler having an interview with Dr. TC (Tyler's conscious), however this time instead of talking to Tyler about his father and schoolwork, Dr. TC focuses a lot more Tyler's explosion into the lime light and how the sudden change in his life is affecting him. He also sometimes about girls Tyler has or wanted to date and so the session becomes contrasting including tyler's past, present and Tyler even talks about his future in some songs. In some of the beginning songs there are obvious influences from artists like N*e*r*d and also Tyler tries out some different styles, which convey Tyler's' musical intuition. as Tyler begins to get more frantic and angry throughout the interview, Dr. TC invites the rest of wolf gang to try and consolidate Tyler and calm him down, however after a Lil B and Waka Flocka inspired track 'Bitch Suck Dick' and a rather disappointing whole team rap 'Window' is over, Tyler shoots them all in a moment of blinded madness. then after the final, very powerful track 'Golden', draws to an end in a fantastic crescendo, Tyler pulls the gun on himself, however before he can finish, security run in and dose him with something that knocks him out and as Tyler drifts in and out of conscious, Dr. TC explains to Tyler that all this sessions with him were only fragments of his imagination as are Wolf Hayley, Ace and Tron cat, creating one of the most powerful endings I've heard from an album in a long time, leaving Tyler's next album, wolf, a very open and exciting prospect.
          Before, I get down to the nitty gritty of the review I think it's important to say quite how effective the use of Dr. TC is used in the outro and intro to the songs as in a very 'Tyler-like' fashion in paints a very vivd picture in my mind of the session, and it would be interesting to see how Tyler portrays them in his videos, like in 'yonkers' for example and she as the video for that is due to release in 7 days from now.
          Now, I will start with what I felt were the positive points of this album, Tyler has got better, and dare I say it; matured! He is lyrically leaps and bounds from where he was during Bastard (and he was fairly competent then) and although not every rhyme is gold, nor every verse, there are certain parts in most songs were lines literally took me aback, especially on 'Tron cat', 'Yonkers', and especially 'Golden', for example, "17, why didn't she have that abortion?//Probably 'cus that motherfucking embreo was morphine" and "Green paper, gold teeth and pregnant gold retrievers all I want//Fuck money, dimes and bitches, don't need them. album itself, flows and feels much better than Bastard and though the producing is far from great (I will comment on it later), the use of synths and drums Tyler has learnt (presumably from left brain and the super 3) has improved enough to have a positive impact on Tyler's music. Also, the different styles on goblin, show an even more confused side to Tyler, with the subtle synth filled R'n'B influences in 'She' and 'Her' combined with the sadistic and obsessive lyrics from Tyler's more intimate side and frank oceans' obsessive, infatuated choruses show a completely different, but all the same dark side of Tyler we saw on wheels from Bastard. In comparison to the feral beats of 'Tron cat' and 'Transylvania', coalesced with the shocking, angry and frankly evil lyrics we fell in love with on Bastard and the Radical mixture. Despite the experimenting with styles, I'm also happy to report Goblin hasn't lost the wolf gang flair they created in the Radical mixtape or Bastard. It still includes the funny, outrageous lines and the 'don't give a fuck-ness' a lot of us felt we could relate to is still incorporated in this album, with celebrity disses which often cause controversy between celebrities as well as on chat shows, and the anti-religion lines which i personally delight in. also in 'Sandwitches', Tyler and Hodgy Beats' anger, can be related to by most of the young generation, that candidly make us kids wanna, 'kill people, burn shit, fuck school' with lines like "C'mon kids, fuck that class and hit that bong" and the chants of "It's the WOLF GANG, WOLF GANG, GOLF WANG" bellowed out at the hundreds of venues odd future have played at.

          However, this album, like any it has issues, I commented lightly earlier about the production on this album, saying it was far from great, which they were. However, odd future as we know are (or were) a very low budget group, now I know a lot of goblin was actually recorded in late 2010 (before they really blew up) but, i'm not an expert but i'm sure that from their many gigs and merchandise they could have invested in some kind of synthesiser, because frankly some of the beats on this album sounded as if they were made on garageband, others just simply didn't fit the song for example on 'Transylvania', the beat and the poorly edited voice made the song very hard to hear, and honestly it wrecked what with a better beat could have been one of the better songs on Goblin. Also on 'Radicals' although the rhymes and lyrics weren't all there, they still captured the anger and irascibility of the song, that make me want to go and punch people, and break things unfortunately, the beat completely undermined this song which really was an essential part to this album instead it just made me want to count sheep. Additionally, I commented earlier on the celebrity disses being funny however, there are certain parts on this where the flow of constant insults thrown about random celebrities (and bloggers) got very dull, the Steve Harvey and Rihanna ones-fair enough there are jokes the original fans of odd future can relate to however, insults like "fuck Bill o' Reilly" (OK fair enough he's a jerk) but they're unnecessary, unamusing and on a studio album, unneeded. finally, although you're all probably thinking it if you're still reading this, i'm going to say it anyway, FREE EARL- I know it's an impossibility but this album really did need Earl, he could have added a lot to the flow of goblin on the odd verse or another 'Assmilk' combination with perhaps a 'Pigeons' reminiscent track would have made the album a lot better and show the world Odd Future's seemingly bottomless pit of talent.
          Personally, as a fan, I found aspects of this albums better than expected, others worse. Some of the tracks I felt were dumbed down slightly which made it more accessible to others, which as a dedicated fan is obviously frustrating, on the other hand this has opened his possibilities up, I've heard Tyler perform on radio 1, and seen him on channel 4 and to me that feels very rewarding. Also I hope this support and hype they are getting will bring in enough money that they can get better equipment and not just for the studio, but it would also be interesting what Tyler could do if he had better cameras and such for his directing. Overall I felt goblin was a more progressed version and I emphasise progressed, not better, version of bastard. The Wolf Gang team have developed and matured (musically, of course) lightyears past bastard, it will be interesting to see their next studio album, especially Tyler's. If they sort out the beats and production of their upcoming releases, they have the potential to produce excellent hip-hop — and that is what album did-opened the world's eyes to potential of Tyler and his gang, and although this album is full of flaws they can be fixed, and like any young artist they will continue to progress.
OFWGKTA