Review: Call Me If You Get Lost is a soulful summer listen
California singer, songwriter, and producer Tyler the Creator is back in the music headlines after dropping his eighth studio album, Call Me If You Get Lost (CMIYGL). CMIYGL is the follow up project to Tyler the Creator’s critically acclaimed album Igor, which won best rap album of 2020 at the Grammys and showed that Tyler’s producing skills were coming into their own. CMIYGL is full of soulful summer jams and hard hitting bangers that are sure to make their way onto your playlist soon. (You can find the entire CMIYGL tracklist here)
The album starts with SIR BAUDELAIRE, which is a low-fi freestyle rap in which Tyler lays the first theme of the album: success and showing it off. CMIYGL is full of flexing from Tyler, as he demands respect and talks about monetary and musical gains. SIR BAUDELAIRE is a good opening to the album and really sets the tone for what’s to come.
Following SIR BAUDELAIRE is one of my favorite tracks, CORSO. CORSO is a rap banger with a great beat and soft piano sound behind it. In CORSO, Tyler talks about another theme of the album: a relationship that he wrecked from the past. My favorite line from this song is, “In the end she picked him, I hope when they go she still thinks about me because I’m that perfect.” This line is backed by a nasty synth sound that comes in and really makes it sound gritty and well rounded.
LEMONHEAD follows CORSO and it isn’t my favorite track. It has a heavy trumpet sound and is very loud and impactful, which isn’t a bad thing. However, it’s two minutes of Tyler yelling over a loud beat, which is something I’ve heard time and time again. LEMONHEAD is by no means a bad track, but it’s not something I could listen to every day on my playlist.
After LEMONHEAD is perhaps the best summer track, WUSYANAME, which was described by music critic Anthony Fantano as “a song that feels like sitting poolside talking to a hottie all day”. I completely agree with Fantano as the song is full of soft and fun energy and features Tyler’s autotuned baby voice, which I love. The biggest surprise on WUSYANAME is the feature of NBA Youngboy, who actually really fits the sound of the song when he actually sings and doesn’t try to rap too much.
Then you have LUMBERJACK, which was dropped two weeks before the actual release of CMIYGL as a teaser. LUMBERJACK is a bold banger in which Tyler does some of his best rapping on the album and is a complete 180 flip from the R&B of WUSYANAME. And after LUMBERJACK, there is ANOTHER complete 180 flip onto HOT WIND BLOWS, which feels like being on a boat in Geneva. HOT WIND BLOWS is my favorite song on the album and features Lil Wayne, who absolutely kills it as always. It’s full of woodwind sounds and a great piano sound while Tyler raps about stunting on everyone and traveling the globe.
You then have MASSA, which is another track that fell a bit flat to me. I don’t have much to say about it other than Tyler sounds a bit unenthusiastic and angry. However, RUNITUP comes right after MASSA and picks things back up in a great way. In the beginning he says, “I always had confidence, I ain’t ever been nervous, I ain’t ever had anxiety, I ain’t ever second guessed myself. If I want it, I go get it.” This fits both themes of flexing and ruining a previous relationship and again is full of bragging from Tyler on his success.
Perhaps the scariest track on the album, MANIFESTO comes next and has a ghostly vocal performance from Tyler and features an unsettling beat (in the good way). MANIFESTO is just another testament to Tyler’s producing skills and shows how far his rapping has come too.
SWEET/I THOUGHT YOU WANTED TO DANCE is such a beautiful and amazing song. I can’t say enough good things about this sweet, summery, R&B hit that is 10 minutes of pure vibes. This song encompasses everything related to summer, warmth, and good times. I encourage you to put this song on when going for a long warm drive with your windows down at sunset. SWEET also features a reused background sound from GONE GONE/THANK YOU from Igor, which I thought was a great callback.
MOMMA TALK and BLESSED are both small interludes in which Tyler features a talk from his mom and goes on to say he’s blessed to be healthy and in the place he is. I thought this was a good addition because in an album where he is flexing constantly, it’s good to hear him be humble and thankful for being blessed.
With four tracks left, you have RISE!, JUGGERNAUT, WILSHIRE, and SAFARI. RISE! Is a catchy and fun song that will have you saying the line “Please don’t go, please just stay” all day. Tyler of course is talking about rising to the top in this song and proving everyone wrong. JUGGERNAUT is an underground sounding banger with a futuristic synth beat that features Lil Uzi and is a rollercoaster of a listen.
The final two tracks are WILSHIRE and SAFARI. It saddens me to say I did not like WILSHIRE at all, and is my least favorite track on the album. It’s ten minutes of Tyler telling the story of the relationship he wrecked, and it’s scratchy and a hard listen. I understand wanting to put it in for the theme and to make it an experience, but I listened to it once and probably won’t listen to it again. On the bright side, SAFARI ends the album on an extremely high note. It is a song that’s full of beautiful jazz and great rapping from Tyler that has made every single summer playlist I’ve made this year. SAFARI is a great way to end CMIYGL, as Tyler leaves us with the line “Wolf, Call me if you get lost, and like that, we gone.”
CMIYGL is by no means a perfect album in my opinion and doesn’t quite reach the heights of Igor, but is still a fantastic addition to Tyler’s discography and tops Flower Boy. This album will be talked about for the next decade as a decadent and soulful summer album that will make its rounds every year in June. Overall, Call Me If You Get Lost is a strong eight out of ten.
FAVORITE TRACKS: CORSO, WUSYANAME, LUMBERJACK, HOT WIND BLOWS, RUNITUP, SWEET/I THOUGHT YOU WANTED TO DANCE, RISE!, WILSHIRE
LEAST FAVORITE TRACK: WILSHIRE
