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Welcome to a new edition of the Best Music of All Time newsletter!
Today’s music pick celebrates the 5th anniversary of Tyler, the Creator’s engrossing artistic breakthrough.
Genre: Hip-Hop, Neo-Soul
Label: Columbia
Release Date: May 17, 2019
Vibe: ❤️🩹
Igor is a break-up album in more ways than one. The heartbreak embedded in Tyler, the Creator’s lyrics, revolving around his unrequited love for a man unwilling to get over his ex-girlfriend, has been well-documented since its initial release. But there’s another aspect that’s been under-discussed in that same span: Tyler cutting himself off from his previous rap persona and fully embracing his more soulful, vulnerable side. As he warned his fans on Instagram right before the album dropped, “Don’t go into this expecting a rap album. Don’t go into this expecting any album. Just go, jump into it.” A half-decade later, that’s still the best approach. Clocking in at a tight 40 minutes, it’s a record that’s aged quite well, conceptually and sonically. You keep waiting for the other shoe to drop and the ear candy to stop tumbling out of this LP, but it doesn’t. It’s a messy, expansive world that contains multitudes and demands the appropriate amount of attention.
Interestingly, parts of Igor were written long before the album was finalized. Hit single “Earfquake” was pitched to Justin Bieber and Rihanna, both of whom turned it down. “Running Out of Time,” one of the record’s best neo-soul moments, was written after Kendrick Lamar gave Tyler more confidence in his ability to sing. Actor and comedian Jerrod Carmichael came in to record the narration snippets, an element that some may roll their eyes at, but it ends up being a crucial element here. On the outro for “Gone Gone,” he nicely sums up the feeling of a doomed relationship opportunity: “I hate wasted potential, that s*** crushes your spirit. It really does. It crushes your soul.”
Tyler’s follow-up, 2021’s Call Me If You Get Lost, took the experimentation several steps further, with mixed results (although I understand that I’m an outlier opinion-wise on this topic). For me, Igor is still his most fully realized statement, working through fraught emotional territory with undeniably funky sensibilities.
👉 Don’t forget to click the album image to stream the album on your favorite platform 👈