Wolf
The Odd Future ringleader and serial provocateur gets real on his second studio album, though he hasn’t abandoned his mischievous ways. *Wolf* channels the Los Angeles rapper’s angst and dark humor into a wry, warped therapy session: Tyler explores his strained relationship with his dad on the murky, clattering “Jamba” and the death of his grandmother on the jazzy finale “Lone.” The album’s sprawling yet cohesive centerpiece is the clattering suite “PartyIsntOver/Campfire/Bimmer,” on which Frank Ocean and Laetitia Sadier soften Tyler’s sharp edges.
Two years after Goblin, the Odd Future ringleader returns with an album heavy on gorgeous beats and a lyrical focus that takes aim at the band's critics and the trappings of fame.
Wolf is both a departure and a refinement, combining Tyler's best traits in such a way as to nearly eliminate his weaknesses.
First things first – at least six of the sixteen tracks on Wolf are easily up there with the best of this year's hip-hop crop so far. And yet, on his third full-length offering, it seems that Tyler is suffering from the same exact strain of fatigue which has afflicted Eminem since The Marshall Mathers LP.
A lot has already been said about Tyler, the Creator's latest LP, Wolf, and about his propensity to be politically incorrect while simultaneously surprising critics with real depth and sensitivity.
While Wolf feels like progress on some fronts, it’s also a resolutely conservative effort.