Eamon Blog

Today's Shelf Pull: Tyler, The Creator, IGOR

Soft harmonies, rough edges, and feelings that refuse to leave neatly.

Tyler, The Creator makes IGOR feel both carefully arranged and emotionally untidy. Read the full story from Kilmorna in Listowel.

Tyler, The Creator makes IGOR feel both carefully arranged and emotionally untidy. The keyboards lean out of true, the bass carries a rough edge, and the voices arrive in layers. Nothing here suggests that having a melody means having your feelings sorted.

Released in 2019 on Columbia, the album moves between rap, soul and synthesiser-led pop without stopping to announce each change. On vinyl, its two sides offer a useful frame for a story whose emotions are rather less willing to respect boundaries.

The immediate attraction is the contrast: soft harmonies against abrasive surfaces, memorable hooks inside arrangements that keep their corners. IGOR offers plenty to hold on to, but little that sits entirely still. That is a good reason to follow it beyond the familiar melodies.

For today's shelf pull in Listowel, the useful approach is a simple one: give the sequence room. This is music with inviting parts, but the relationship between those parts does much of the work.

Igor’s Theme begins with an ominous swell rather than a tidy introduction to the narrator. Listen to the weight of the sound before trying to untangle it. The opening establishes a physical pressure that makes the softer material feel exposed rather than merely pretty.

Earfquake brings pop melody into that unsettled space. Its appeal does not depend on everything becoming smooth; the fractured quality is part of the pull. A tune can be welcoming while the voice carrying it sounds less certain of where it belongs.

Throughout the album, heavily processed vocals make expression a matter of texture as well as delivery. Listen for how a voice fits into the keyboards and harmonies, not only how it stands apart. The arrangement is doing some of the emotional talking.

The drum programming has a dusty character, while the bass supplies thickness and friction. Those details matter because the lushness never becomes spotless. There is usually something rough enough to catch against the softer passages.

Side A places I Think and Boyfriend before Running Out Of Time and New Magic Wand. Even before interpreting that sequence, it is worth resisting the urge to treat each title as a separate destination. Recurring hooks and motifs encourage a longer attention span.

Side B begins with A Boy Is A Gun*, followed by Puppet and What’s Good. The names suggest positions in a relationship, but the listening need not become a decoding exercise. Follow the balance between melodic softness and rough texture first.

Gone, Gone / Thank You gives tenderness an unstable setting. The sweetness feels less like a solution than something being tested for how much it can bear. Dense layers invite attention, but the emotional effect is not simply a matter of adding more sound.

I Don’t Love You Anymore belongs near the end of this journey, where a declaration can sound less conclusive in context than it looks on a track list. The album's fractured love story gives certainty a difficult job.

The final title, Are We Still Friends?, leaves a question where a clean ending might have gone. Without reducing the song to its name, that placement is worth noticing: the sequence finishes by opening another possibility.

IGOR rewards listening for relationships between sounds: distorted bass beneath harmonies, altered voices against keyboards, hooks returning within a larger emotional movement. You do not need a map of Tyler's earlier records to find your way into this one.

Nor does attentive listening have to mean sitting rigidly through it. Let the melodies register, then notice what makes them uneasy. The record's warmth and abrasion belong together; removing either would make its emotional world a tidier, less interesting place.

The reason to choose this album is not that it resolves heartbreak with unusual efficiency. It makes uncertainty vivid and gives it shape. Some records clear the room; this one leaves a feeling sitting in the spare chair.

On the shelf today:

Tyler, The Creator - IGOR

LP, 2019

Hip-Hop / Rap

EUR 33.95

Available from The Kilmorna Collection, Listowel

Buy or reserve: https://www.thekilmornacollection.com/vinyl/tyler-the-creator-igor

Buying vinyl records in Ireland: https://www.thekilmornacollection.com/vinyl-records-ireland

On the shelf today

Tyler, The Creator - IGOR

LP / Hip-Hop / Rap / 2019

EUR33.95 / Available now

Order / Reserve