Chromakopia, released on October 28th of 2024, is Tyler, The Creator’s 7th studio album. It was one of the most anticipated albums of October and was interestingly released on a Monday instead of the usual Friday. The album features Childish Gambino, Daniel Caesar, Doechii, GloRilla, Lil Wayne, Schoolboy Q, Sexyy Red, and Teezo Touchdown. Many expected Frank Ocean to also feature on Chromakopia, but the rumors turned out to be false, which is disappointing but not a huge surprise to me. As for the music itself, the songs are largely hip-hop and r&b-inspired with jazz sprinkled in. Tyler and others make frequent use of their voices to sing harmony and choruses, which is utilized to great effect. The album is produced well and sounds good across the board; the beats especially are high quality and consistent. Chromakopia is also a little bit out of the ordinary, which is kind of Tyler’s brand at this point, but it doesn’t do anything especially new that Tyler hasn’t explored before. It sounds like a signature Tyler, The Creator album, which is both good and bad depending on how you look at it. As for themes, Chromakopia has a preponderance of concepts that appear throughout the album. It’s impossible to get to them all, but one big theme that I noticed was Tyler looking inside of himself, analyzing his feelings and thoughts. There are many songs that portray Tyler’s emotions in reaction to something that is going on in his life, like fearing having a child in “Hey Jane,” being worried about celebrity worship in “Noid,” and mulling over his father’s absence in “Like Him.” The album is not ultra-consistent with its themes, but many of the songs hit hard and connect with the listener in the ways they are meant to.
My standout tracks for Chromakopia are “Balloon,” “Tomorrow,” and “Darling, I.” “Balloon” really surprised me, as I wasn’t expecting it to be as good as it turned out to be. It’s a fun song that is easy to vibe with, which I appreciate, and it doesn’t drag on like some of the other tracks on Chromakopia. I would describe “Balloon” as a “bouncy” song, if you get me. Overall, a solid, fun, surprising song. “Tomorrow” is much more chill and utilizes acoustic guitar and background vocals to bring a really enjoyable sound to the track. The song focuses on Tyler’s fear of the future and of his mother’s aging. It’s a nice listen, and it brings a good vibe to the back/middle of the album. “Darling, I” stood out to me as the best song on Chromakopia from the first listen and kept getting better every time I listened to it. It’s extremely catchy and fun to listen to, and I enjoyed the usage of Snoop Dogg’s tongue-click sample from “Drop It Like It’s Hot.” The song speaks of Tyler’s struggles with love and how he has to evaluate it in his life, and its themes get through to the listener well. It drags on just a little at the end, which kept it from getting an even higher score, but “Darling, I” makes up for that with a very catchy chorus and great verses. It is without a doubt my favorite track on this album.
Every album also has a stinker: A song that stands out as the worst on the album. For Chromakopia, the stinker was fairly easy to choose from the first listen. “Sticky” stood out to me as a very disappointing track immediately. It has 3 features on one song, which would be cool if the features each had more than a few lines. It was hard for me to listen to the chorus of “Sticky,” as I found it extremely annoying. The constant chanting of “it’s getting sticky!” was not pleasant, the whistle sample that was used throughout the song was also annoying, and the verse at the start of the song is nothing special either. The back end of the track actually wasn’t terrible, as the chorus shut up and the verses got better. The features weren’t bad either, just short. If “Sticky” was rated without taking the last bits of the song and the features into account, it would certainly get a 3 or a 2.5. Its shortcomings are almost covered by these good parts, but ultimately, it is not enough to make the song enjoyable. I can confidently say that “Sticky” is my least favorite song on Chromakopia.
Next are my individual song ratings and 1-word descriptions. For reference: a 10 is one of the best songs I have ever listened to, anything above a 5 is something that I had at least some joy listening to, a 5 is a song that I was completely indifferent to listening to, anything below a 5 is something I didn’t enjoy listening to, and a 1 is one of the worst songs I’ve ever listened to.
- “St. Chroma” – (7.5/10): Crowded
- “Rah Tah Tah” – (7/10): Intense
- “Noid” – (5/10): Drag
- “Darling, I” – (9/10): Catchy
- “Hey Jane” – (6.5/10): Interesting
- “I Killed You” – (6/10): Unfocused
- “Judge Judy” – (5/10): Freaky
- “Sticky” – (4.5/10): Annoying
- “Take Your Mask Off” – (7.5/10): Deep
- “Tomorrow” – (8.5/10): Chill
- “Thought I Was Dead” – (7.5/10): Vibe
- “Like Him” – (8/10): Solemn
- “Balloon” – (8.5/10): Fun
- “I Hope You Find Your Way Home” – (7/10): Sendoff
Chromakopia is well-made and overall is a joy to listen to. It starts strong with “St. Chroma” and continues to be consistently good besides “Noid” (“Noid” wasn’t really bad anyway, just drawn out) and a few songs in the middle. Specifically, the three-song run of “I Killed You,” “Judge Judy,” and “Sticky” was underwhelming. Other than those, Chromakopia is chock-full of high-quality tracks, and I was impressed with its flexibility and consistency. The thing I noticed most throughout the album was the quality of the beats and the great usage of backing vocals, which I highlighted in the introduction. As for some shortcomings, I noticed that some of the songs tend to drag on or overstay their welcome, and some tracks were overloaded with sounds and felt crowded. These small issues are not bad enough to detract from the listening experience as a whole, and I generally enjoyed listening to all of the tracks on Chromakopia besides “Sticky” and maybe “Judge Judy.” While the album showcases many themes, it handles them all pretty well and gets the message across. My final evaluation of Chromakopia by Tyler, The Creator is this: Chromakopia utilizes quality beats, backing vocals, and themes to create an interesting and fun listening experience despite some of the tracks’ tendencies to drag on. The album gives a remarkably consistent performance overall. 8/10.
