Cherry Bomb

Pitchfork 6.7/10 His greatest strength has always been world-building, using a synth-heavy blitz of candy-colored jazz chords taken straight (sometimes blatantly so) from the Pharrell handbook. Cherry Bomb isn’t exactly a hard left turn from this lane, but it is a quick swerve.

A.V. Club F At 24 years old, Tyler still hasn’t outgrown his teenage urge to alienate, and he still demonstrates the compulsive need to sabotage his own victories.

The Needle Drop 3/10 OF'S Tyler, The Creator comes together with an album of ultra-distorted hardcore hip hop and smooth, lush neo-soul.

NME 4/5 His past albums have been weighed down by gloomy self-analysis, but here he sounds upbeat and free to experiment.

Rolling Stone 3.5/5 Tyler still spends at least half his rhymes reminding us how few fucks he gives, and his bright new sound often comes spiked with petulant noise. But a certain humanity peeks through.

All Music 3.5/5 Returning customers who like Tyler the ringleader, or Tyler the producer, will find this to be too much of a good thing, and can embrace the free-form Cherry Bomb as another freaky trip worth taking.

The Skinny 3/5 Ultimately there’s too much going on, and in what looks to be a vintage year for hip-hop, Cherry Bomb quickly scatters rather than leaving behind any indelible statement.

Clash 7/10 When Tyler allows these strengths to shine through, 'Cherry Bomb' is provided with its best moments. If anything, the album is held back by his ambition – imprudent testing falls short of his usual standards.

The Observer 4/5 Juvenile shock tactics persist, but he’s now channelling his puckish energy into some thrilling experiments and the more time-honoured hip-hop touchstones Tyler brings into the mix – from Roy Ayers to Smuckers’ multi-platinum three-way with Lil Wayne and Kanye West – the more deliriously wonky it all sounds.

Slant 3/5 He's a talented but conflicted voice, still frustratingly incapable of getting it together.

Pop Matters 6/10 Musically, Cherry Bomb finds Tyler taking a step in the right direction by ever-so-slightly removing himself from the world of his early albums and mixtapes, but it’s only a half-measure.

The Guardian 3/5 If you like Tyler, you’ll love Cherry Bomb. It’s a good title for this near-hour’s worth of fizzy sonics and lush eruptions of synths and strings.

The Irish Times 3/5 Cherry Bomb is the Odd Future gang leader's fourth album and it's a noisy, rambunctious, unfettered, explosive affair, a bum-rush of energy, top-of-the-head thinking and musical prowess.

RapReviews.com 7.0/10 At the end of the day, I enjoy “Cherry Bomb,” both for it’s misanthropic noise and for its funkier and jazzier sides.