Tyler, the Creator: Call Me If You Get Lost review – Sir Baudelaire’s finest

Album	CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST
Artist	Tyler, the Creator
Released	25 June 2021
Highlights	CORSO, WUSYANAME, HOT WIND BLOWS
Lowlight	MASSA
Undertone rating	4/5

Tyler, the Creator’s 2019 album IGOR wowed fans worldwide with its ambitious storytelling, chart-dominating singles and unparalleled originality. Could the Grammy-winning California rapper produce another masterpiece in his 2021 follow-up? Alex Walden isn’t convinced.

So far, 2021 seems a promising year as far as music goes. We’ve seen releases from major artists such as the remix of the hit album Unlocked by the dynamic duo Denzel Curry and Kenny Beats, a new album from the UK prodigal star Slowthai, and the incredibly long-anticipated return of rapper J. Cole giving us his latest project, The Off Season. However, none of these albums so far equate to the ground-breaking release of our favourite creator. On 25th of June 2021, the world was introduced to a new character: Tyler Baudelaire. That’s right, we have officially been introduced to Tyler’s newest alter ego on his latest project, Call Me If You Get Lost. Accompanied by 2000s mixtape king in DJ Drama, we explore the mind of Sir Baudelaire as they both tell us about their wealthy lifestyle and complications regarding Baudelaire’s attraction to a girl who is supposedly in a relationship with one of Tyler’s friends.

The rollout

The ability to perfect an album rollout is something that only few artists can achieve. There are multiple components that are required to produce a truly successful rollout ranging from your ability to make fans obsess over sometimes the smallest things to retaining their attention by providing a finished product which is able match the hype that you manage to generate over your project.

He’s not afraid to do something completely different and unexpected. That’s what makes him so popular right now.

I have written previously about how Tyler, the Creator is able to produce a good short rollout to get fans excited for his music, however, I was completely staggered by the publicity gained from such minor details that left fans going crazy. Around early June, billboards were spotted in major cities such as Los Angeles, London, Berlin, Sydney and many more. They had the number 1 (855) 444-8888 with the caption “CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST” written above. Fans could call the number to hear a voicemail of Tyler’s mother talking with his son, teasing the track MOMMA TALK. Tyler then teased his fanbase more by releasing the snippet SIDE STREET where he shows off his ability to French kiss on the bonnet of a custom Fiat 131 Abarth while the introduction to SWEET / I THOUGH YOU WANTED TO DANCE plays in the background. Now as Tyler fan myself, I can remember being quite excited for this project as I know that Tyler’s ability to sell an aesthetic with his project is truly incredible. However, my excitement was simply unmatched with the rest of the Tyler, The Creator fanbase. The hype for this album spread like wildfire across social media as fans were pondering how Tyler would be able to top the masterpiece project that was IGOR.

As if his fanbase weren’t already excited enough, Tyler surprise released the single LUMBERJACK from the album which gave us an Odd Future-style vibe (which was honestly something I wasn’t expecting) before announcing that CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST was releasing the following week. Despite announcing this, Tyler wasn’t stopping, he later released a second single off the album WUSYANAME on YouTube, just 3 days before the album’s release as well as the skit BROWN SUGAR SALMON the day after. By this point music fans pretty much had no choice but be excited for this project. The visuals of these sneak previews what we could expect were some of the most creative visuals I’d seen in a long time.

THE SOUND OF THE ALBUM

If I had to describe this album to someone who had never listened to Tyler, The Creator before, I would say that this project is probably the most quintessentially Tyler album that he’s made to date. It represents Tyler’s growth and multiple sounds as an artist pretty well. From songs such as WUSYANAME and SWEET/ I THOUGH YOU WANTED TO DANCE we can hear a sound that resembles Tyler’s IGOR and Flower Boy, yet with songs such as LEMONHEAD we get this Cherry Bomb sound. On LUMBERJACK and JUGGERNAUT we get this Odd Future/Wolf sound which resembles the sound of Tyler in his earlier days as an artist.

Tyler is telling us “Just let me do me. It’s going to sound dope anyways”.

The day before the album’s release, Tyler released the track list for his album on his Instagram, which was accompanied by a particularly unusual list of artists who would feature on the project. I’ve stated previously how with any Tyler, the Creator album, you should steer clear from expecting anything in particular. After all, he’s not your typical mainstream artist. He’s not afraid to do something completely different and unexpected; that’s what makes him so popular right now. Despite this, even I was surprised to see features from artist such as 42 Dugg, YoungBoy Never Broke Again and Lil Uzi Vert who are well renowned trap artists, it seemed like a complete clash in my mind. Of course, I forgot that this was the man who collaborated with Playboi Carti, one of the most popular trap artists of the late 2010s and managed to make their track one of the most streamed Tyler, The Creator songs in his career so far. Nonetheless, after giving the album a listen once it came out, the artist collaborations fitted surprisingly well. I’ve even heard from people who don’t listen to YoungBoy regularly how they were surprised at how well his verse would complement the track. I’d even go far enough to say that it’s one of the best features on the album, competing with Lil Wayne’s verse on HOT WIND BLOWS. It felt refreshing to hear a group of trap and hip-hop artists apply their strengths on a project that isn’t their usual sound.

overall thoughts

To be honest, it’s a well-rounded project. Tyler’s alter ego, Sir Baudelaire, is able to convey his wealthy aesthetic very well while still longing for that special someone he wants so desperately. He also incorporates artists from other sub-genres effectively on his tracks which can be a difficult thing to do. This album shows Tyler’s growth and maturity by the way he is able to incorporate sounds from previous projects to give the album this magnum opus feeling. The project was advertised extremely well making fans go wild with excitement as if the project was a month away when in reality it was only a week away.

However, it’s not Tyler’s best album in my opinion. I still believe that title is reserved for IGOR. With IGOR, you could hear how the album was carefully constructed to truly make the listener feel true emotions while listening. It felt like a project that you couldn’t just make from a couple studio sessions and a couple albums worth of experience under your belt. Tyler clearly put a lot into IGOR, and it shows: the album was a masterpiece. However, in CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST Tyler seems to be telling us “Okay, now you know what I’m capable of. Just let me do me, it’s going to sound dope anyways”. Indeed it does, but it’s not masterpiece quality, and that’s perfectly okay. At the end of the day not everything an artist makes has to be a masterpiece. If every single project was a masterpiece, then we wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between good music and bad music. One thing’s for certain though – Tyler has figured that he can shake up his style a bit and it will work, and he can grab the music world’s attention easily and completely, shaking up the game with anything he puts out.