CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST: ALBUM REVIEW
It’s been a while since we’ve heard Tyler really rap. After dropping two of the most impactful albums of the last decade with Flower Boy in 2017 and IGOR in 2019, it seemed like Tyler, the Creator might have been ready to leave rapping in the past. But on his newest album, titled CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST, Tyler brings flows that throw us back to his early years with beautiful results. Not only is he flowing like he was in 2012, but lyrically, he digs back into the pain and honesty that made his voice so necessary in the first place. CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST allows Tyler to demonstrate mastery over his sound while proving that he’s never left his roots.
Tyler’s last two projects, Flower Boy and IGOR, were conceptual odysseys. Both had songs with long interludes and tons of guests. They overwhelmed the listener with their sheen. They were fantastic projects: both had distinct mournful feels that seeped all throughout Tyler’s lyrics and orchestration. There was a string of heartbreak, loss, and acceptance that held them together thematically. This heartbreak occasionally morphed into anger or bliss, but behind each song there was a bit of melancholy.
CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST feels like Tyler’s revenge album. He’s angry and ready to move past his feelings, he wants revenge that he can’t quite reach. While the heartbreak is still there, he’s ready to talk explicitly about it rather than hiding it behind double entendres. The song “WILSHIRE” is particularly powerful in this respect as Tyler absolutely rips into a failed relationship. Tyler takes us into specific moments with such clarity that it feels like we’re sitting there with him.
Tyler’s biggest strength in his early music was his ability to dig deep into a subject that nobody else would even touch. This got him in hot water early in his career because it was easy to confuse Tyler’s darkness with someone searching for shock value. But on CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST, Tyler brings back the same flows and darkness that were there before, but with more maturity. For example, the song “MASSA” begins with the line, “Massa couldn’t catch me my legs longer than a bitch,” and Tyler proceeds to rap about depression, rap about his mother being in a shelter, and retroactively psychoanalyze his younger self. Honestly, this is what has always made Tyler’s music incredible. But as he gets further in his career, his reflections add layers of depth. The shocking moments are just a bit more shocking now.
Instrumentally, Tyler blends many sounds on this project. While the album is full of bangers, it doesn’t only rely on heavy 808s. Even on more bass-heavy songs like “LEMONHEAD,” the song is carried by soaring brass synths. Tyler also mixes in plenty of tracks with just a traditional drum and synth line and effortlessly flows over that as well. The album feels like a demonstration of Tyler’s production skill, but he never really tests himself on this one in the way that he did on IGOR.
The dual centerpieces of this album are two 9-minute long “love” songs. “SWEET” and “WILSHIRE” are both centered around seemingly the same unrequited love. They’re both pretty stunningly beautiful and odd. Lyrically, they harken back to tracks on Bastard or Goblin, when Tyler was much more willing to openly explore his obsession. The only difference is that in 2021 Tyler seems to have the world under control. Now Tyler obsesses over the few things that he can’t control rather than desperately being fixated on the entire world being out of his reach.
CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST is a beautiful and strange album. It’s one that I’m going to need to sit with for a long time before I know how I feel. There’s so much to say about this project in terms of Tyler’s evolution that I haven’t even mentioned DJ Drama and the mixtape influence on the project, or the best Lil Wayne verse I’ve heard in years, or what the album title and alter-ego even means. Tyler has proved once again that he’s a generational artist and we are all just along for the journey.