it's difficult to explain how you feel about an album you love but simultaneously hate. on the one hand, there might be something about how it sounds, how everything in it comes together, that you really like and admire, that or a vibes thing. on the other hand, however, it could also have bad pacing, several tracks that feel unnecessary, and in the case of wolf, alongside the previous problems, the lyrics could encapsulate the parts you hate about a musician you love.
wolf and i have a complicated relationship as far as albums go. when i first listened to it, i genuinely went back to relisten to it again because that first experience was so electric. it was pretty rainy out, the album seemed chill, so i put it on, liked it a lot, and decided to go back and give it another try whenever i could. it's by far the tyler album i've listened to most, and if you asked me from early summer what i thought of it, i'd say it was in my top 3 tyler albums. it's now in my bottom 3. how could my opinion change in only just a few months? that's a good question. i'm not even really sure myself, all things considered, but let's go over how i felt about the album so we can get a better picture.
wolf is a prequel to goblin that ties into the latter. it was originally going to release in 2010, but tyler decided to hold it back to work on goblin first. wolf then released in 2013. in this album, tyler goes to camp flog gnaw (not to be confused with the festival he owns), where he meets up with sam, played by himself, and salem, sam's girlfriend. over the course of this album, tyler gets with salem, making him sam's worst enemy. this then leads to sam killing earl sweatshirt, which would be a truly unforgivable crime if i actually liked earl sweatshirt's music, so i'm more whatever on it. maybe once i'll listen to his other albums besides live laugh love i'll like his music more. tyler and salem still get together, by the way, sam doesn't steal back salem. the album is really fucking vague on what happens after earl sweatshirt dies. i assume tyler goes to beat the shit out of sam or whatever but i couldn't really tell. the album then ends with clancy walking in on tyler jacking off, which then leads to him talking to dr tc about his grandma's death.
wolf is primarily an album about two opposing morally grey forces clashing and colliding. on the one hand, we have tyler, who is called wolf haley here. he tries getting with salem when sam is already dating her, so as is he's not painting a flattering picture of himself. he's not a particularly good person for that reason, but compared to sam he's definitely the morally superior. speaking of, on the other hand, we have sam. in awkward we're shown that his relationship with salem is, for lack of a better term, awkward. we're also shown in 48 how he deals drugs in 48 states, and how he came to camp flog gnaw in pigs, and by that i mean we're shown how he shot up a school. he also kills earl sweatshirt, but we know that already. as a whole, sam is definitely the worse person here, but wolf stealing salem from sam isn't exactly great either, leading to wolf being a character who is definitely our likable protagonist, but isn't exactly a picture perfect person.
this then leads into one of my gripes with wolf, a gripe that wouldn't be so obnoxious if this wasn't a pattern: tyler's early lyricism. for the most part, tyler writes all of his lyrics, with occasional guest writers to help out. his lyricism since flower boy has been amazing, but besides cherry bomb, i'd argue his early lyricism is downright bad. if it's not shock value like bastard and goblin, then it's way more instances of the name of a cigarette and a racist word that rhymes with the name of that one winnie the pooh character than i'm comfortable with, that or random offensive stuff. in general odd future had a lot of edgy lyricism, see earl sweatshirt's debut mixtape as an example and some of the stuff on the odd future tapes, and while i hate the lyrics in bastard and goblin more due to them being lazy shock value that somehow claims to not be horrorcore, i honestly think wolf's lyricism pisses me off more, because while it tends to lean softer, it really gets on your nerves when a commonplace odd future trend, like an out of nowhere slur, jumps in your face and makes you remember that you're listening to an early tyler album. cherry bomb has these problems, but it is unironically far more restrained than wolf is.
tyler says the f slur just enough in this album that it gets on your fucking nerves, and it makes wolf feel like a goddamn roulette. he says it in 12 goddamn tracks on this thing, and that's not counting the times he drops a hard r or something else completely absurd and stupid. he says it even more in goblin too, but there you get genuinely desensitised to it because he says it so much, so you get less frustrated and moreso just bored by him saying it. here, the infrequent once per track, maybe even twice if tyler's feeling cheeky, jumpscares from the word that rhymes with slag just end up ruining the less intense vibe of wolf. this was really when i realised the edgy act odd future was putting on, alongside him just being a generally immature and not great person during this time (see: the tweets he made about the ferguson riots and affirmative action in 2014), really held back tyler's early lyricism. my friend lyla said it best, he's really not beating the anti-black / homphobic allegations.
it doesn't help that wolf's occasional braggadocios lyrics, such as in domo23, rusty and tamale, with an honourable mention to parking lot, are just not great either. there's only so many times you can respond to the people calling you a racist homophobe and the media press before it gets tiresome, that and these tracks usually have the offensive lyrics that just puzzle me as much as the slurs. he calls clancy, his white manager, his "slave master". he calls spike lee the n word, hard r and all. he calls himself a racist in parking lot. he unironically says a lyric in rusty that equates to "i'm not homophobic, i have a gay friend". after a point you have to wonder why people stuck with him considering how bad these lyrics are. the last one especially pisses me off, just say you're a homophobe at this point, because i don't know how to say this, tyler, but saying you're not homophobic, then proceeding to continue saying a homophobic slur, is homophobic.
that's enough ranting about lyrics, let's get to talking about the songs. they're very good, i actually love how wolf sounds. obviously a lot of the lyrics drag down certain ones, but for the most part they're very good. a sort of orchestral, cinematic vibe is present in some tracks, like the title track, colossus and ifhy, but for the rest of the album, a more chill, yet still engaging vibe is kept up. notable tracks are cowboy, awkward, answer, 48, and partyisntover / campfire / bimmer. the only problem is that a lot of tracks could be cut or rewritten to fit the concept better. especially after pigs onwards, it feels like wolf forgets it's a concept album and relegates the story stuff to the end of each track with skits, as such making parking lot, rusty and trashwang the lowlights of the album, alongside the fact all 3 tracks suck. if you want to show tyler's confrontation with sam, do it more than at the end of each track in this part of the album. rusty is by far the best of the 3, but is also one of the most overrated tracks tyler has ever made. it also doesn't help that tyler still sucks at pacing. 18 tracks over the course of an hour is a lot, and so many could be cut, so it's a miracle that most of them end up memorable and that the album ends up solid.
wolf, if it wasn't obvious, is an album i love and hate. on the one hand, it lyrically sucks balls and made me realise i have a lot of problems with tyler as a person. on the other hand, it has immaculate vibes and a mostly great track list, with exceptions to the latter half, which is a mixed bag. it's an album i enjoy relistening to, but one that frustrates me. i'd be genuinely curious how tyler would handle this album today, considering how he's improved as a writer, so i wouldn't mind the idea of a remake of this album. it's mostly solid.
6/10
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