It is no surprise that Tyler, the Creator is one of, if not the best lyricist of this generation. Maybe I am biased, with Tyler being my number one streamed artist on Spotify for the past 5-6 years. However, there is no hiding his talent. While his discography is very stacked, “IGOR” has some of the best production and lyrics out of any album that I have ever listened to.
IGOR’S THEME serves as an introduction to the sound of the album and the character Igor, but the story itself begins on EARFQUAKE. On EARFQUAKE and I THINK, we follow Igor’s journey of falling in love. These songs are very easily digestible with lyrics such as, “You make my earthquake” and “I think I’m falling in love; This time I think it’s for real”, in order to mimic the way that love seems so simple during the honeymoon phase of a new relationship.
Igor’s story takes a sharp turn on RUNNING OUT OF TIME and NEW MAGIC WAND where we learn that Igor’s love interest already has a girlfriend, but Igor knows that he still has a chance. With this being a very cut and dry concept, we see these being more easily digestible songs with Igor stating, “Running out of time to make you love me” and “I need to get her out the picture; She’s really f***ing up my frame”.
A BOY IS A GUN* and PUPPET brings out a whole new side of Igor when his love interest begins to choose his own girlfriend over Igor. We see Igor begin to give up on the fling during A BOY IS A GUN*, “Imma leave it at that, Imma leave us as friends, Cause the irony is I don’t wanna see you again”. This song also serves as a humongous turning point in Tyler’s career due to the lyric, “‘Cause this parka is Comme, you’re my favorite garçon”. With Tyler being very secretive with his sexuality, having him admit that the love interest was a garçon, French word for young man, was huge. Igor gets more vulnerable on PUPPET, detailing an abusive and manipulative situation, “You’re parasitic; I do not have self-control; I am startin’ to wonder; Is this my free will or yours?. This song alone details a huge shift in Igor, considering that he has spent half of the album romanticizing his situation.
Next follows WHAT’S GOOD,GONE GONE/THANK YOU, and I DON’T LOVE YOU ANYMORE, which detail anger and forgiveness. Igor is audibly upset, losing all control during WHAT’S GOOD, which is a very loud song in comparison to the rest of the album. However, in GONE GONE/THANK YOU, Igor accepts that his love for the young man is gone and he is able to thank him for everything, “Thank you for the love, thank you for the joy; But I don’t ever wanna fall in love again”. This message pairs perfectly with the message in I DON’T LOVE YOU ANYMORE, which if you can tell by the title is Igor telling his ex-lover that he no longer has these feelings with very direct lyrics such as, “Um, you do you, I’ll do me, I’ll just choke the piece up; I ain’t tryna keep up, because; I don’t love you anymore”.
“IGOR” wraps up with one of my favorite songs on the album, ARE WE STILL FRIENDS. The way in which the beat builds up throughout the song, just to reach the big scream at the end perfectly depicts everything Igor has gone through. The song begins off with Igor repeatedly asking “Are we still friends? Can we be friends?”. We see this calm nature get lost at the end of the song when Igor goes deeper into the current state of their relationship by pleading, “Don’t get green skin, keep contact; Don’t say ‘Goodbye, smell you later’; Nah, I can’t; I don’t want to end the season on a bad episode”. Igor being able to express this shows that even with everything that his ex-lover put him through, he still wants to keep him in his life.
The complex story of “IGOR” will forever go down in history books. The way in which Tyler put such immense detail into this album, even down to the album perfectly being split in half, with the first detailing chasing a love interest and the second half detailing running from said love interest. This album will always be worth listening to from front to back.
