Call Me If You Get Lost - Tyler, The Creator: Review

Tyler, The Creator

is a California rapper and multi-medium superstar. After first emerging as the main brain behind the Odd Future hip hop collective Tyler cultivated a brand for himself that included numerous solo albums, TV shows and an imprint into the fashion industry and that's just a start. Since first breaking out Tyler has drastically changed the sound of his music, transitioning from his edgy lo-fi brand of provocative hip hop into the sounds of pop, R&B and soul music starting with 2017's Flower Boy and expanding even further on 2019's Igor.

Review By Lav:

Hello! If you're a Tyler, The Creator fan reading this it's probably the first time you've seen one of my reviews since I covered IGOR in 2019. You most likely bookmarked a tweet about it or followed my account with a burner so that you could periodically send me provocative DMs because I made the unforgivable mistake of calling out the album for the elements of it that failed to translate with me. 2 years later and I still feel pretty strongly about my 6/10 review, and it would be more likely to go down than up. While I was completely blown away by Flower Boy, Tyler traded out many of the songwriting, instrumental and performance qualities that had suddenly made his music so infectious. Going into his next project all I was really hoping from Tyler was catchy hooks, engaging performances and compelling instrumentals regardless of the stylistic approach through which that came. While the choice to bump up the tracklist and runtime from Igor certainly had me interested going into the record, but not quite as much as the two 8+ minute songs that make their way onto the back half. 

When all is said and done Call Me If You Get Lost is an improvement that makes up for its inconsistent tracklist with some excellent highlights, production, and some absolutely killer features. I wouldn't call it a triumph or list it among the best things I've heard this year, but I enjoyed a lot more of the record than I didn't. 

The first crack to take at the 16 song tracklist are a trio of short tracks that serve as intros and interludes. Compared to most hip hop records they are tolerable. The intro track SIR BAUDELAIRE is an incessantly annoying way to start off the album and the piercing DJ Drama adlibs last throughout the entire record varying from fun to physically painful. MOMMA TALK and BLESSED are much better and serve as funny reliefs or thematic tie ins for the albums final stint. 

Let's not waste any time digging into some of the most talked about songs on the record which for a hip hop album is always the high profile features, and there are some GOOD ones here. The first two come on WASYANAME which starts by further proving that Ty Dolla $ign really is the feature king. He sings backing vocals alongside Tyler over a blissful summery R&B flavored beat that sounds fresh off Flower Boy. The track is thematically a love song even though there are moments where it clearly comes off more silly than sincere. That's why I was so surprised to hear NBA Youngboy of all people not only showing up on the track, but absolutely killing his feature, adopting his sound perfectly to fit the dynamic of the song. HOT WIND BLOWS has some lyrical moments from Tyler that certainly induce eyerolls but its done over another bright and blissful beat. What really sells the track is that Lil Wayne features on the back end and delivers some absolute fucking heat on his guest verse. Wayne is as much of a legend as anyone in hip hop and he takes a whole new approach to this verse that I've never quite heard from him, the results of which are incredible. 

Being a big Odd Future fan in their heyday I was really excited about MANIFESTO. The track sees Tyler teaming up with fellow Odd Future alum Domo Genesis and they absolutely hit it out of the fucking park. Domo turns back the clock delivering a lights out verse and when paired with Tyler's longer verse to close out the track is is all killer from start to finish. RISE! kicks off like a 90's hip hop anthem with some more DJ Drama shouting but it actually fits in this time. Tyler's singing vocals are solid here and so is the hook while flexing his versatility while driving right into a pretty solid verse. While his rhyme scheme can be a bit of a drag the song does rekindle a love I've always had for Tyler's incredibly unique vocals and hard-hitting delivery. This is even all before up and coming singer Daisy World shows up to deliver some vocal magic on the back end of the track. 

I was worried that JUGGERNAUT might be a mess given the roster Tyler assembled on it. It also gets off to a really rough start instrumentally before the beat thankfully transitions into the bass heavy killer beat the song gets from here. It's no secret that I've had reservations about Lil Uzi in the past but he is absolutely killing it on this track. I would have never predicted him to be far and away the best part but he is, finally pairing his overwhelming personality with some actual technical ability. Pharrell is damn good on the song here and once again a big feature pays off for the album. 

Unfortunately even though this record benefits from a number of its features there are some big misses, and not just the constant DJ Drama yelling. Lemonhead has a cool beat at first but the entire wall of instrumentation though it blends together in a slightly unflattering way during the verses before erupting into arena sized climaxes. Tyler is fine on the song but the real achilles heel is 42 Dugg. While this isn't the worst I've ever heard from him the first half of the verse is a real painful slog. Given that the track is barely over 2 minutes and that includes an unrelated outro I don't see myself coming back to it.  RUNITUP is worse with an extended intro that is extremely boring and completely unnecessary. The spoken word intro is less annoying than the completely lifeless pitched down bridge before the beat kicks in. There is really only one verse on the track and Tyler switches up his performance pretty well while staying in stride which is slightly impressive I suppose. For some of the most unnecessary and shoehorned in vocal lines I think I've ever heard on a song see Teezo Touchdown. Tyler really let this man down by releasing this song without asking him to do another take or something, because its just brutal. 

The last pair of features come on the famous Tyler 2 part song which all of his albums ritualistically maintain. I had an ongoing joke that each of these songs is one half great and one half terrible until Tyler ruined it by making one of my favorite songs of his entire career 911 / Mr. Lonely. He was back at it on IGOR with the excellent Gone, Gone ruined by a disasters second half. Wouldn't you know it Sweet / I Thought You Wanted To Dance faces the exact same dilemma, but the order is flipped. Even with Tyler's higher octave singing voice being something I've grown accustomed to in the past few years this track needed a retake badly, maybe an entire re-write. It gets way more obvious when Brent Faiyaz, who I also have strong reservations about as a vocalist comes into the song and sounds like a massive breath of fresh air. The instrumental is actually kind of nice and the bassline is one of the most memorable things on the record which is a shame because I think the track has one of the worst hooks here. That paired with the first portion of the song being an astounding five whole minutes in length the Sweet half of this track is comfortably my least favorite thing on the record. During the transitional phase DJ Drama comes in with some airhorns to ruin the serenity for a few seconds before it gracefully returns. I love the call and response vocals between Tyler and Fana Hues who have a ton of vocal chemistry together and she sounds absolutely fantastic over the instrumental. I probably won't get the chance to enjoy it much on its own but I do think I Thought You Wanted To Dance is quite a solid track. 

The remaining tracks are where Tyler himself takes the helm and while they're a mixed bunch there are still more highlights to be heard here. MASSA has the hilarious premise of Tyler re-imagining himself as a slave and flexing the successes he's has as an artist and an entrepreneur. He's playing it a little bit more lowkey here than on other parts of the record but his deep vocals remain intoxicating and the songwriting at its core is also pretty satisfying. This is another instrumental that is just a wonderful vibe right out of the gate and Tyler's constant bars about owning and being on boats have never felt more natural than the middle portion of this record. Wilshire is eight and a half minutes long which made me pretty nervous going into it. I would have been even more nervous hearing that the song was mainly a vessel for Tyler to tell stories through his lyrics with a relaxed Flower Boy channeling beat and long lyrically driven verses. While this thing isn't necessarily Mural I do enjoy what Tyler brings to the table particularly given how loose the record and most of Tyler's discography is lyrically. There is more than enough reason to listen in on what he has to say on the track and despite its lack of compositional shifts I can't say I ever really get bored which is another testament to Tyler versatility. 

LUMBERJACK was the albums only single and I wasn't quite as enamored with it as some people. I do like the song and it certainly has a few catchy refrains but I was hoping there would be more to it within the context of the record and there really isn't. CORSO is the first proper track on the record and it sounds like Tyler has been hanging out with some old school guys as the song has a bouncy beat with vocal samples interlaced and yes, of course, DJ Drama hyping him up constantly. Despite that Tyler makes the song sort of enjoyable as he is actually genuinely rapping on the track and he's actually not bad at it. 

The only dud in this bunch is unfortunately the closing track SAFARI. If you loved the lyrics on WILSHIRE this song is taking all of that positive momentum and throwing it right out of the window directly into a volcano that is bubbling with molten hot bad lyrics. The first verse on the song is delivered with the vocals pitched up a bit which sounds silly at first but I've actually grown to like it in comparison with the far worse second verse that serves as the albums unfortunate farewell. Worse than either of these however is yet another insanely annoying and redundant break in the middle of the track. By this point on the album I always think that I'm used to the tedium but it always surprises me just how deflating that passage is for this song and the records finale as a whole. 

Call Me If You Get Lost is bloated, lets get that out of the way immediately. It has nothing to do with the number of interludes here or the option to include lots of shorter songs rather than longer ones. Generally speaking the inconsistencies of the record come largely without specificity to song length, but make no mistake they are here and you could cut off about a third of the album to make some major improvements. But lets also not forget that I said this record was an improvement, and I meant it. Compared to IGOR whose one lone true bright spot came on A Boy Is A Gun this record is packed full of great highlights that I'll be revisiting all year. Tyler has finally given up the impulse to take himself insanely seriously and this helps so many of his punchlines land in succession feeling natural, funny and charming for what may be the first time ever. The record has its lyrical shortcomings but generally speaking the thematic concept of the record is that Tyler is living good, and wants everyone to know about it. That attitude paired with a glorious return to form on a number of beats here can be infectious when done well. 

For all the analyzing I've done of this album over the last few days I'm surprised to report that I have a lot of fun each and every time I hear it, which is clearly by design. Some of this record needs to be quarantined off and never heard from again but a lot of it is both instant summer playlist rotation, but deeper with more attention to detail than you average summer pap. In that way I'm happy to report that I think the record is a success, and I'm continuing to look forward to watching Tyler develop his unique blend of sounds going forward. 7/10

Album Cover Review by Tyler Judson:

I enjoy this cover. It has a minimal feel but when you look closer it has a lot of fun details. The colors and edges of the card make it feel like a real photograph rather than something super imposed and that helps it come to life. The use of text is smart and I'm glad they didn't use a premise font that would have looked too manufactured. Overall this is really fun. 7/10

For more hip hop check out my review of J. Cole's The Off Season here