Considering I haven’t been a serious Tyler, the Creator fan for some time now, I only first heard about his new album on Instagram. Chromakopia truthfully didn’t intrigue me at first, despite it being the only thing on my feed for several days after its official announcement on October 17, 2024. Because of Tyler’s large and diverse fanbase, it was a matter of hours before it was all over every social media platform and Instagram story.
With his new studio album came a whole new brand, and upon seeing the cover, I hadn’t even realized it was Tyler, The Creator. Some on TikTok made the point that Chromakopia was another one of Tyler’s big splashes in the music industry, taking an approach opposite to when he released his iconic album, IGOR, in 2019. Listeners compared the album covers, pointing out the inverted color schemes, opposite hairstyles, and contents. While IGOR is a narrative about the speaker’s love life, Chromakopia details Tyler’s experiences throughout his life with topics ranging from death, to love, to identity.
My first few listens of it had me feeling torn, and so I asked a few listeners about their thoughts. A few of the most streamed tracks on the album seemed to commonly be their favorites, such as “Sticky”, “Rah Tah Tah”, and “St. Chroma.” When asked about how Chromakopia compared to Tyler’s other popular albums, I was met with mixed responses.
Sophomore Declan Newell at St. Louis University says, “While there are standout songs, the album as a whole is not as good as his other albums.”
Julian Mostowski (LP ‘25) said, “I think it was better than Call Me If You Get Lost. However, I feel like the album was still a little underdeveloped and could’ve used more time in the oven.”
Stella Helgeson (LP ‘27) agreed about the placement above Call Me If You Get Lost, adding that Chromakopia was just “easier to listen to.”
Some online were referring to Chromakopia as ‘The New IGOR’, Tyler’s most popular album, with over one billion streams on Spotify. Helgeson and Alan Munoz (LP ‘27) both agreed that the new album was about “on-par” with IGOR, though Newell completely disagreed. He stated that when compared to Chromakopia, “IGOR had a lot more variety within itself, and it was much more impactful and revolutionary at the time of release.”
As for me, I’ve never been a Tyler ,The Creator super-fan. I was a pretty frequent listener throughout 2022, like many people, but as of recently, I haven’t found much interest in him. I found many of his other albums to sound very similar to one another, such as IGOR, Flower Boy, and Call Me If You Get Lost. I was a big fan of his 2013 album, Wolf, but was hoping to find some unique styles and sounds in his new album, especially considering his significant rebrand. I was a little disappointed when many of the songs on Chromakopia resembled so many of his other tracks, and only about two of the songs really caught my attention.
“Tomorrow” and “Like Him” stood out to me the most, mainly because of how he strays away from his traditional, bold synths and funky beats. His use of pianos, keyboards, and acoustic guitar in them were very abnormal compared to his other albums and I personally loved it. Overall, this was by no means a bad or even average album. I only wish he included more of his experimental songs, considering how amazing they turned out and how they’ve continued to prove what a skilled, diverse artist Tyler is.
