album review - cherry bomb

tyler proceeds to make some of the best music to come out of odd future then spends the next half an album making "goblin 2: this time the lyrics are tolerable and the album is fine".

of all the albums tyler has released across his career, none of them have been as hard for me to pin down a concrete opinion on as bastard, but with that said, cherry bomb is a very close second. i can barely tell if i like or dislike cherry bomb after i'm done with it. every time i finish it either i like it a bit more or i like it a bit less and i cannot genuinely tell you why i'm so indecisive about what is probably the most "whatever, it's good" tyler album.

tyler stated that he just kind of wanted to make songs on cherry bomb. it's his second least story focused album behind don't tap the glass, but it still has thematic ties to tyler finding his wings in the music industry. he says it best himself in pilot, he's flying first class but he feels like coach. you not only feel this in the lyrics, though, but the entire album. i'll get more into it in a sec when i discuss the sound of the album and how i liked the music, but even the sound of cherry bomb feels like tyler is trying to find a style that suits him the best, all while still maintaining recurring instruments.

the lyrics in this album are the best to come out of tyler's odd future run by far. everything's softened up just enough so that it's not nearly as edgy with way less f slurs (thank fucking god). it still has that kinda language on occasion but it's been highly toned down and the album is way more focused lyrically than it was in the first three albums.

the tone of cherry bomb straddles the line between chaotic and gorgeous. some tracks like deathcamp and the album's very own self-titled track are bass boosted to hell, loud and bombastic. they represent the "bomb" in cherry bomb. other tracks, though, like "find your wings" and "blow my load" are more chilled out and focused than the rest. you could say they're the "cherry" in cherry bomb. in general the album has a lot of clean, smooth synths in comparison to the messy, gross sounds of goblin. it persists throughout the entire album and helps blend the line between chaos and peace the album shows off very well. deathcamp, pilot, find your wings and cherry bomb are absolutely phenomenal, but blow my load and buffalo are good too. notice how i only mentioned tracks from the first half of the album.

i'm not acting like the second half of cherry bomb is entirely bad, it's alright. fucking young / perfect is awesome, ignoring the lyrics, and 2seater and smuckers are excellent too. the problem with the second half of cherry bomb is that it's basically goblin 2 with its pacing, which doesn't help some tracks and makes them feel longer than they probably should. 2seater is 6 minutes and definitely feels like it could be trimmed in places, fucking young / perfect is your standard double track, so it's gonna be long, smuckers is a well earned 5 minutes and okaga, ca is 6 whole minutes again. that's not mentioning keep da o's and the brown stains of darkeese latifah part 6-12 (remix) being 4 minutes, which is generally a bit longer than many songs from the album's first half. i forgot yellow, but i don't care about yellow.

this is primarily why i struggle to revisit cherry bomb, because that second half is a make or break deal. i either love it or find it boring, and it doesn't help that the quality dips a bit too. i like a few tracks here as much as the first half, namely smuckers and fucking young / perfect, but keep da o's is insanely forgettable and the brown stains of darkeese latifah part 6-12 (remix) is by far the weakest track on the album, i'd argue it sounds genuinely bad. it just sounds like tyler and schoolboy q are rapping over the fucking fnaf jumpscare sound, it sounds lame as shit. the hidden track special added to the second half of this track on physical releases isn't much better, i'd argue i like it about the same as the first half, maybe less.

i would overall say cherry bomb is a good time, but very much feels like it could be partially trimmed in ways. it's definitely the best of tyler's run on odd future, but it shows a lot of growing pains as tyler starts to find his wings in his music career. if you like the rest of his odd future albums, though, then this should still work for you.

7/10

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