Cookie crumbs in the Rolls

Continuing my trip up The Guardian's Top 50 Albums of 2021

#5 : CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST - Tyler, The Creator



Call Me If You Get Lost is a decadent and luxurious showcase of Tyler’s reverence and nostalgia for music’s past – Gangsta Grillz mixtapes, lovers rock, Houston R&B – channelled into his own present and future. Also central to this album’s beauty is the fact that Tyler can rap, crafting engaging tales out of deft, intentional flow. He has always been a romantic, but here he bears a softer side than ever, forced to recognise that love, so often, is about timing. “Come get lost with me,” Tyler offers on Blessed, late into an album that has already guided the listener through a bright, expansive and occasionally sentimental world, with the tracks melding into one another in true mixtape fashion. So often, we focus on beginnings and endings. Here, Tyler masterfully reminds us that life is all about the journey, growth, confusion, pain and magic in between.


I've met Tyler once before and whilst I didn't mind him, I'm not entirely sure what I'm supposed to do with it (and I was mystified at how popular it was) - I was expecting this to tick exactly the same boxes.  And yeah, there are some nice quirky noises on there, some fine rapping and some low, low bass, but it's just not speaking to me.  I suspect he's perfectly fine with this state of affairs though.  I also hate what albums with white surrounds appear to do to my blog post spacing - it's just rude of him, quite frankly.


Wikipedia has a reasonable amount on the album (200 milliPeppers) and starts off with some incredibly pretentious bollocks comparing Tyler to Baudelaire, the 19th century French poet.  I bet those comparisons passed a lot of his core audience by (as, I'm more than happy to confess, they did me as well).  The rest of it basically tells me how popular it was both critically and commercially - #1 in the US and #4 in the UK.   Sorry, but I just don't get it - but I'm happy if you like it.


"Customers also listened to" Kanye, Kendrick, Childish and the fantastically named Earl Sweatshirt.  I don't hate this kind of thing and I even like some of the noises and the odd track or two, but a whole album just bamboozles me, I'm afraid,


#6 - OK, but not something I'd search out
#4 - I feel I should like this more

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