Tyler's first release on a major label, with OF fans ready to start mosh-pits in the streets I'll go ahead and dissect it as clearly as possible.

Production:
Tyler has managed to split the track production into a few characteristics including chaotic, dark, angry, mellow, energetic, exceptions in Analog & AU79. Starting off with Goblin, Tyler almost completely trashes the piano which managed to keep hairs standing on end along with his self-destructive lyrics. In personal opinion, Tyler didn't manage to do the best job producing as his track "Transylvania" which is instead produced by LeftBrain immediately converted me into temporary cannibalism disguised as vampire-ism. In a short summary you could almost dump each track into a generalized category such as "Dark", "Mellow", and with special exceptions said above.
3.5/5
Lyrics:
As a complete Tyler fanboy admittedly, I've followed up on most, if not all of his interviews and I understand he said one time that he wasn't just going to talk about the same things, I expected better (not that he would truly give a damn). The album can be seen as a downward spiral with some testosterone added as you can count 5 songs in this album having to do with women, misogynistic or not. Goblin starts as Tyler begins to complain about his rise to fame & the general public's opinions and expectations; strength not equaled to Bastard's intro but good enough with a strong finishing as he goes out with the words "The Devil doesn't wear Prada, I'm clearly in a fuckin' white tee..." I'll just say "Yonkers" is possibly one of the key tracks of the album as Wolf Haley decides to take over and go on a complete warpath, disintegrating reality with each bar that he spits. "Radicals" is a potential paradox itself as Tyler warns people that he's not telling people to go out and do stupid things himself, but to stand up in what you believe in while the chorus continues to keep screaming "Kill people, burn shit, fuck school!" Transylvania can be seen as a quick side-track into the mind of Dracula through Tyler's eyes, mainly having to do with raping & drinking the blood of women. Nightmare would count as another key track as instead of going off about his fame once more, he decides to take the more emotional approach about where he stands in his life at this time with the song nearly turning into miniature-breakdown. The last song I'd like to include in this would be Golden. After the massacre of certain people in the last past tracks, Tyler goes immediately into a rampage completely breaking down each one of his problems through his lyrics and not hesitating to self-destruct past any point of return which leads to his swift capture & moment of realization. Past that the rest can be summed up as his standard shock value rhymes, excluding tracks such as She, Her, & Window. As a fan of Tyler's though, I have to say that though Goblin beats Bastard in length, it fails to excel it's predecessor in content.
Notable Songs:
Yonkers
Nightmare
Sandwitches
Window
Golden
3.5 or 4/5
Summary:
A bit of a let down for fans that have been down with Tyler since day 1 but good enough to deserve a couple play-throughs. Features Frank Ocean's own R&B/Hip-Hop taste along with the rest of OF spread throughout the album, whether entirely noticeable or not. I'll be waiting for Wolf's outcome.
3.5/5 |