Tyler, The Creator is always praised for his constant self-reinvention between albums: even just looking at his latest few releases, there’s significant evolution between the heartbreaking storytelling of ‘IGOR’ and the victory lap of ‘CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST.’ In 2024, Tyler is back with ‘CHROMAKOPIA,’ promising yet more change when he raps “give a f*ck about tradition: stop impressing the dead.” In some ways, he’s better than ever, as this new LP is assuredly Tyler’s most introspective and lyrically dense to date. In far too many others, however, ‘CHROMAKOPIA’ falls into his usual pitfalls, and the end result is a little less compelling than we’d hoped for.

That lyrical content is certainly a drawing point, and defines a significant portion of the record’s identity: many fellow reviewers have described ‘CHROMAKOPIA’ as Tyler’s ‘Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers’ (the 2022 album from Kendrick Lamar), and while this new release isn’t as hard-hitting or intensely vulnerable as Kendrick’s efforts, it’s nonetheless a shockingly honest look into his mind and life. Tyler has never escaped the more crude wordplay of his earliest efforts, and he makes no attempt to shirk it off completely here either— take ‘Rah Tah Tah,’ for example, in which he proud claims that “I’m a bonafide face seat, box muncher.”

Alongside these, however, Tyler uses this album to take a look back at this storied career thus far, reflecting on his own shortcomings and victories through the lens of a number of personal anecdotes. On ‘Darling, I,’ he takes a hard look at his own history of relationships, attempting to answer the questions that elude so many young people. Lines such as “see, monogamy, that sh*t is not for me. One option for everybody? Don’t you lie to me” see him finding some solace, though Tyler makes it clear that he doesn’t have all the answers yet as he explores a number of sensitive, difficult topics on the likes of ‘Hey Jane’ and ‘Judge Judy,’ tackling abortion and terminal illnesses respectively. 

Given his history of controversial lyrics and unabashed personas, it’s refreshing to see him handle these topics in a mature and remarkably well-balanced manner, attempting to show each side of the story whenever he can. These topics carry a heavy emotion with them as well, as can be found on ‘Like Him,’ in which Tyler explores the impact his father’s absence has had on his life, cutting deep on lines like “Mama, I’m chasing a ghost.” There are far too many themes and choices to discuss them all in detail, but the fact is that ‘CHROMAKOPIA’ stands as a new beacon for conscious hip-hop, opening the door for future artists to express themselves more openly and honestly.

This isn’t a book of poetry, however, and despite a wonderful lyrical showcase, the quality of the album will ultimately hinge on the music it’s attached to. In the best moments of ‘CHROMAKOPIA,’ Tyler taps back into the confident swagger of ‘CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST,’ flexing his prowess as a producer as he overwhelms the listener with walls of cymbals and blaring synths. The opening ‘St. Chroma’ is a scattershot but effective kick off to the record, slowly building from its spoken intro to a bombastic finish full of choral vocals. The track transitions smoothly into ’Rah Tah Tah,’ possibly the most impactful song on the entire record (alongside ‘Thought I Was Dead’), as the dark, in-your-face production matches Tyler’s boisterous vocal delivery well. Conversely, the end of the record dials the sound choices way back, soaking cuts like ‘Tomorrow’ and ‘Take Your Mask Off’ in sweet acoustic guitar parts and lovely vocal harmonies— ‘CHROMAKOPIA’ shows itself to be decently diverse across its tracklist, and when the stars align, Tyler is bringing his a-game here.

The trouble, however, is that the stars don’t align as consistently as you’d hope for, and even when they do, all is not well with this album. Somewhere during Tyler’s rise to mainstream success around the release of ‘FLOWER BOY’ or ‘IGOR,’ the hip-hop community decided to excuse the poor singing that often crops up on these releases, and that quality has continued onto ‘CHROMAKOPIA,’ reeling its ugly head far too often to drag down more melodic cuts like ‘Judge Judy’ or ‘Tomorrow.’ The over-reliance on obtrusive synths is another issue carried forward from Tyler’s past works— it stands out especially badly here, where random electronic noises disturb many of the softer soundscapes without good reason.

Unfortunately, ‘CHROMAKOPIA’ also brings some of its own issues to the table, struggling through a weak track run between ‘Noid’ and the feature-filled ‘Sticky’ that weighs the album down in mediocrity. Tyler’s relationship with subtlety has never been particularly healthy, and though it’s improved here, you wouldn’t know it from the comical bellows of “paranoid” that open the record’s lead single— ‘Noid’ may feature a standout verse from Tyler where he describes the effect that fame has left on his mental health, but the off-kilter sampling (of the track ‘Nizakupanga Ngozi’ by the Ngozi Family) leaves the song a little musically vacant, especially as it drags on for far too long. The following ‘Darling, I’ is similarly stretched out, repeating its cliché melodic hook incessantly towards the song’s end.

A fair few tracks across the album feel far more lyrically driven than musically inspired, and one can’t help but wonder if Tyler had more to say on the mic than he did via the mixing board. Whether it be the lethargic pacing of ‘Judge Judy,’ the utterly ridiculous hooks of ‘Sticky’ or the disappointingly non-serious bleeps and bloops of ‘Balloon,’ there’s a lack of definitiveness to many ideas here that calls into question how confident of a reinvention this is for Tyler— instead, he falls back on many sounds and chord progressions that he’s explored before, and the record is somewhat disappointing for us as a result.

The extent to which someone will enjoy ‘CHROMAKOPIA’ will depend, in large part, on their relationship with the previous Tyler, The Creator releases. Fans of ‘FLOWER BOY,’ ‘IGOR’ and ‘CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST’ will undoubtedly get a lot out of this new album, as Tyler explores his deepest lyrical themes yet through a comfortable and familiar musical lens. For those not completely sold by those LPs, however, ‘CHROMAKOPIA’ will do little to change your mind, and may dump on a new wave of complaints. The record is worthy of a lot of praise, no doubt: it won’t be making our ‘best of the year’ list though.