Tyler, The Creator — CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST: The Estate Sale — Album Review
Alternative | Hip-Hop | Rap
Listen on Spotify | Listen on Apple Music
Every two years; that seems to be a tradition with the release schedule of big projects from Tyler, The Creator, an indie hip-hop artist and downright creative talent. That being said, every year with an odd number has been one to look forward to, for the reason of hearing a brand new Tyler project.
While I did dabble in a fair amount of the older material that Tyler had put out, dating back to the days of Odd Future, my first true instance of really sitting down and listening to a Tyler project from start to finish, was funnily enough in 2017 with the release of Flower Boy.
To the surprise of what should be absolutely no one, that album quickly became one of my favourites of that year. However, Tyler only grew in popularity from there on out. Namely with his 2019 album IGOR (yet another incredible album, the artists popularity skyrocketed.
This arguably led to the thematic focus of CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST, an album released in 2021, in which Tyler essentially creates a victory lap of his own, celebrating his long-awaited success through what felt almost like a greatest hits album, while introducing completely new tracks.
There have been many a rumour and buzz circulating where exactly Tyler would go next with his musical craft. Some stated that he was going to switch up his style completely. That being said, there was a lot of excitement to be felt by many a fan (with myself included).
But to bring things back to the trend of Tyler releasing an album every two years for one hot second, he (kind of) did the same thing again. But this time, he’s thrown a curveball of sorts into hid discography. Almost two years since the release of CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST, Tyler revisits this album by releasing his own brand of a deluxe album. With The Estate Sale tacked onto the album’s original title, Tyler shares with us a generous helping of what are seemingly B-sides from said album.
This new title suggest that Tyler is wrapping things up in an “everything must go” kind of fashion. And by that, I believe that means that the artist is fully wrapping up the style that fans are familiar with, finally seeing closure on said style before Tyler supposedly moves on to bigger and more experimental territory musically.
But will all of those hopes to get us excited, Tyler still gives us our bi-yearly dose of unique and colourful indie hip-hop goodness, in the form of these new bonus cuts.
That being said, this review will primarily be focusing on those tracks specifically. If you wanted to read my thoughts on the original album, click here to read my review on the original album.
It’s no secret that Tyler, the Creator seems to put his absolute all into almost every bt of music he puts out. A great example of this would be “BEST INTEREST”, one of two standalone singles that Tyler release in 2020. And despite having no real significance on any larger project, that track still made found a place high up on my top singles of that year.
With that said, pretty much all of these bonus cuts fit onto the original album like a glove. They might as well have been there two years ago, and I would not have thought twice. Nevertheless, I love how Tyler and DJ Drama play around with the false exit that the original album presented, as it essentially makes this bonus section of the album feel like one huge encore.
As always, these tracks offer a great range of moods. However, the ones that I really wound up sticking to were the ones whose production spoke of how far Tyler has come as an artist. Good examples of these are “WHAT A DAY” and “HEAVEN TO ME”. Nevertheless, pretty much all of these bonus cuts had something to contribute to the deluxe album, which is something that cannot be said for many an artist that has attempted the same feat.
The only thing about this deluxe album that irked me slightly, was simply the fact that this is a deluxe version of an existing album, as opposed to a completely new one, which has kind of shook the link of one new album every two years that Tyler has stuck to since 2011. But hell, there may be something else on the way that none of us are prepared for.
The very fact that I am reviewing a deluxe edition of an album that came out two years ago speaks volumes towards how much I enjoy Tyler’s music. The artist almost never misses, and it shows once again here.
Favourite (new) Tracks: WHAT A DAY | WHARF TALK | HEAVEN TO ME
Columbia Records | Sony Music
