Further, the album cover is the first where there’s an image of Tyler sans hat (unless you count the illustration on the main cover of Cherry Bomb, but one of its alternate covers does show Tyler in a hat).

In addition, his fashion in the promotional music videos is different instead of colorful streetwear from brands like Supreme or his own GOLF WANG, Tyler is filmed wearing light colored suits, dress shoes, rectangular sunglasses, and a blonde bowlcut wig. Here, his voice is laden with heavy distortion and pitch-shifting effects, and he even sings at times, which for him is rare. Not only is the story being told from IGOR’s perspective, but Tyler rarely sounds like Tyler as we’ve previously known him. Throughout the album, Tyler uses the character of IGOR (to be clear, he tweeted asking the character’s name be typed in all caps) to essentially distance himself away from himself.

Gone are the days of Tyler crafting offensive lyrics about rape, violence, and homophobia simply for shock value to “piss old white people off.” If anything, IGOR is his Kid A if Flower Boy was his OK Computer. Far behind Tyler are the days of Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All (commonly shortened to Odd Future or abbreviated as OFWGKTA), his collective that included other notable members such as Frank Ocean, Earl Sweatshirt, and Syd tha Kid. This is not like any of his previous work and this is not a rap album either. It defies nearly all expectations for what a Tyler, the Creator album “should” sound like, even after the leap in maturity that was his jazzy, neo soul-infused 2017 masterpiece Flower Boy. No matter how you listen to it, IGOR is an album that demands the majority of your attention, and more importantly, fully deserves it. I believe the first listen works best all the way through, no skips.

Don’t go into this expecting a rap album. Hours before its release, Tyler, the Creator tweeted a set of listening instructions to anxious fans about to hear his new magnum opus IGOR.

Earfquake wig