So, if you haven't already noticed, there is a trend in hip hop right now where pretty much everyone has decided to forgo the usual hype cycle that is usually associated with big name artists dropping their new album by releasing the album out of the blue, or earlier than what the release date stated. Drake, Beyonce, Kendrick Lamar, and Young Thug have all done this recently (with varying levels of success) and now Tyler has decided to join in by releasing his third full length album, Cherry Bomb without much warning at all aside from a single that was dropped a few days before the release.
However, this isn't the first time this has happened with an Odd Future affiliate, in fact, it was only a few weeks ago when Earl's album was released, supposedly far before its release date. So, Tyler could either be trying to join in with this growing trend of surprise releases, or simply trying to keep up with his buddies in OF. Whatever the case is... I don't like the majority of what I'm hearing on Cherry Bomb.
This has a lot to do with what came before it, since I thought Wolf was pretty solid; it showcased the better parts of Tyler's production and even had him spitting some very personal lines that I thought were very heartfelt and rewarding for the listener. Unfortunately on Cherry Bomb, Tyler's idea of being personal is him complaining about how he can't wear his hat in certain places.
Also, aside from a few lines on tracks like "THE BROWNSTAINS" or "SMUCKERS", Tyler isn't a very entertaining MC on this album, instead opting for these lowest common denominator bars that do absolutely nothing for me. Truthfully, this album reminds me a lot of Goblin, and album that seemed like Tyler's excuse to mess with mainstream expectations of what rap music is and how young people should behave. While these were and still are perceptions that should be broken, Cherry Bomb, like Goblin, doesn't back up this rebellion with any kind of potency, leading to a very flat listening experience.
The only part of this album that I can truly commend is the production, but even that suffers from Tyler's need to act as irreverent as possible. For example, the production on tracks like "KEEP DA O's" and "F***KIN YOUNG" is really lush and layered. But as soon as the title track starts, he just throws all of that out the window in exchange for production that is sloppily mixed to seem "noisy" when all it really does is bury Tyler in the mix and muddy up everything else. There is a way to do aggressive rap tracks, Death Grips does it all the time with 10 times the aggression and purpose than anything on Cherry Bomb.
To keep things concise, I just can't get down with Cherry Bomb. Really the only track I'll come back to is "PILOT" and maybe "SMUCKERS", but darn near every other track on here reminds me of why I hated Goblin so much and why Wolf was such a pleasant surprise. Maybe his next album will be better?
4.3/10
No comments:
Post a Comment