In 2023, instead of a full Studio Album by Tyler, The Creator, we got an expanded version of “Call Me If You Get Lost”. While the expanded version was a perfect addition to the album, the 8-ish songs we did get weren’t going to last an entire year.
After a wait that felt like forever, listeners finally got a sneak peek of Tyler’s new album on Oct. 16 with the “St. Chroma” snippet. Again, Tyler has always been excellent in building a world for the rollouts of this album and this one was no different. In this snippet, we get introduced to this character Tyler dons, with the video revealing the title of the album to be Chromkaopia and the release date, Oct. 26.
Tyler is constantly turning a new leaf and becoming more intimate and mature with each of his albums; his first creative stride being the introspective and emotionally intelligent 2017’s “Flower Boy” (his fourth studio album).
After his third studio album and commercial failure “Cherry Bomb,” which blended genres from rock all the way to soul/r&b, “Flower Boy” was a blind leap creatively.
What was the first glimpse of his growth artistically and maturity, leaving a lot of his shock value and “Horror-Core” lyrics behind, and instead exploring a softer side to himself while still being the goofy and charming artist we know.
After this release, Tyler put out his most recognizable and widely regarded piece of work, his conceptually lovesick “IGOR.” Following “IGOR” came the aforementioned 6th studio album “CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST.”
Some of the songs off this album were commercial and critical successes and the following deluxe would prove to be a fitting victory lap (If you don’t count the excellent third album run as one.) “Chromakopia”s first single “Noid” reminded a lot of people (including me) of “Deathcamp” off of “Cherry Bomb” due to its leading guitar riff and heavy bass lines. The track itself outlines how Tyler is not entirely comfortable with his fame, going over his paranoia surrounding fans, partners and the motives behind their relationships to him.
Tyler now has the ability creatively to execute what his vision is. For example, the opening track “St. Chroma” is the perfect build up for the album as a whole with layers of piano and synths and backed vocal harmonies provide by “Daniel Caesar” and layered on by the sound of marching feet and a whole whispered verse that again talks about his need to create and succeed and again his concerns about his fame.
Another track that is important to the narrative of the album is “Darling, I”. Being about love and relationships and how Tyler handles and how his need for independence and his paranoia burdens his relationships
the song itself being a “Open relationship anthem” and while the track feels in retrospect kinda like a cringey talk that your forced into by someone about how you don’t want to be “owned” by one person, buts its a extremely important track due the juxtaposition it has towards the next track “Hey Jane”, and as soon as the track starts we learn that tyler gets someone pregnant and the song goes over his perspective and this mysterious other person and the track gets into the the complex and gritty and uncomfortable and complicated as anyone who would be describing this scary moment in anyone’s life, but the whole story is told is such a genuine and caring way, while admitting that he hasn’t been the best in this situation, coming across as not really feeling any strong way about about not being in this kids life, but its made into a full circle moment as he begins to process his own issues of abandonment, Tyler as a kid not having his father in his life.
All these feelings of paranoia and abandonment eventually take Tyler to what feels like a dark place mentally on the track “Like Him” what is probably the most emotionally raw Tyler has ever been. The track is a deep look into Tyler’s abandonment and how uncomfortable he is about looking more and more like his father as he grows older, serving as a painful reminder of his relationship with his father.
The bombshell of the track is an outro from Tyler’s mom asking for his forgiveness after exposing the role she played in his father’s absence. These lines from his mother bring the album full circle as her recurring narration gives her own insight. This maternal perspective really puts listeners in her shoes, asking the question, “what if she’s been lying this whole time about everything” because Tyler and his father’s absence was the force of his career and what’s stopped him from being intimate or entirely honest.
This honesty feels like a butterfly effect of Kendrick Lamar’s “Mr. Morale and the Bigsteppers” winch “Chromakopia” parreals heavily, being a deep introspective. And the biggest supporter of the album on release was Tyler, quotes saying 2023 Converse Interview “I Love that album’… some people can’t listen to it, they probably feel like ‘Kendrick”’ looking at them in their eyes.”
“Mr Morale” being a album that story isn’t just honest moment for Kendrick confessing to his struggles with fame and relationships but is Kendrick’s way of pointing at the listener the same way Tyler is doing winch has been a consistent theme for Tyler’s “IGOR” and “CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST”, “Chromakopia” has been the most critical we have ever seen Tyler be towards himself, and is easily one of the best top offs 2024.
