Review Score:

A

July 27 / 2025 –

Tyler is a sick man for this one.

CHROMAKOPIA was the first Tyler, The Creator album I was paying attention to prior to its release. Without a deep investigation into his discography, it was as expected. It had some highlights, but nothing that I really came back to months after its release. Now, when a lot of other artists might be dropping their deluxe editions, Tyler decided to skip right to the next project. There was no album rollout and he didn’t wait for a Friday night to drop it.

I woke up, reached for my phone and browsed the internet before I was even fully conscious (as I tend to do), and saw a surprise drop. Tyler, The Creator’s most recent project is an intentional 180 degree flip from the high-concept, left-field material fans have come to expect. I put this on while I cleaned my apartment on some mundane afternoon and found myself wanting to sprint around the room like a hyperactive dog.

The album is light on theme, and that’s by design. Because what it’s lacking in deep lyrical layers, it makes up for in spades with danceable beats and catchy rhythms. The first three track run is one of the best of the year by far. “Sucka Free” is, for my money, a top five Tyler, The Creator song. “Ring Ring Ring” is another banger. It has a great, classic groove reminiscent of something MJ himself would sing over. The first half of the album is the stronger of the two. The latter half, which is still rich in ear-pleasing production choices, slows things down a little bit.

Two of the album’s three features come back to back with “Don’t You Worry Baby” and “I’ll Take Care of You”, with Madison McFerrin and Yebba respectively. I can’t help but feel like separating these in the track list might have helped differentiate them, giving them room to breathe. This isn’t to say that they aren’t both good songs. Both artists deliver beautiful vocal performances, though I feel “I’ll Take Care of You” is the better of the two tracks overall. I’m embarrassed to say, but in the interest of transparency, I did briefly mistake McFerrin for Clairo.

“Tell Me What It Is” makes for a solid closing track, wrapping the limited “conceptual” aspect of the album up nicely (concept is used loosely here). With a slurry of new album drops these past few weeks, Tyler, The Creator’s newest project has surprised me the most. This is the kind of album that the summer so far has been sorely missing, and I’ll be flailing my body around my kitchen to “Sucka Free” until winter.

Review Score:

A

Gubb wrote this review. You can’t get mad at Gubb.