Album Review: DON'T TAP THE GLASS by Tyler, The Creator

Navigating conditioning, zeitgeists, and cultural nudges toward alpha-ism and sensitivity, Tyler has landed on both sides, exemplifying rap at its brashest (his first two albums, 2009's Bastard and 2011's Goblin) while also voicing heartbreak, an earnest desire for love, and commitments to personal growth (2017's Flower Boy, 2019's Igor). With his latest album, DON'T TAP THE GLASS, he continues to seek balance between warring impulses (as he did previously with 2021's Call Me If You Get Lost). While his solution is alternation more than integration, the album, one of his shortest sets at approximately 28 minutes, does succinctly illustrate his range, in terms of emotions, identity, and outlook.

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On hedonistic form on his ninth studio album, is he now the most interesting figure in modern rap music? On the release of Tyler, The Creator's unexpected new album, multiple signals were sent telling the listener not to take this record too seriously - the man himself says "none of that deep shit" during the spoken intro. Instead, Don’t Tap The Glass is energetic and bassy, with lyrics centring around partying, romance and machismo. Lead single Stop Playing With Me doubles as a pop shield test, as Tyler repeatedly spits the phrase out in the spirit of confrontation ("Niggas always hated on me, niggas been mad / diss me, we can line it up like a chin strap").

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Tyler, the Creator isn't exactly a "spell it out" kind of guy, but he made an exception for his new song "Big Poe. " On Monday morning, after years of indulging in blonde bob wigs and cockroach-eating cryptics, the 34-year-old used the track's opening words to issue an unambiguous command to fans and critics who are surely waiting to dissect his latest mosaic: "No sitting still… dance, bro. " It's a mandate that's easy to follow with "Don't Tap the Glass," a meticulous yet deliberately low-stakes new album that skips through the Black dance music diaspora with jittery electricity and his customarily quirky ingenuity.

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Arriving with little fanfare and without a prolonged, carefully-staged build-up, Tyler, The Creator released his ninth studio album, ‘DON’T TAP THE GLASS ', in the early hours of Monday morning. The compact 10-track project follows last year’s warped psychodrama, ‘Chromakopia '. Where that album excavated Tyler’s past musical alter-egos, exploring the illusion of youth and celebrity as intoxicants through a mask-clad protagonist in a state of flux, ‘DON’T TAP THE GLASS' is Tyler stripping back the artifice and luxuriating in a state of ecstasy.

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Tyler, the Creator has long played with alter egos, from Wolf Haley on 2013's Wolf to Sir Baudelaire on Call Me If You Get Lost, and on his ninth studio album, Don't Tap the Glass, he slips into his most calculated role yet: the polymath pop star. He seems so determined to flaunt his range that he collapses under the weight of his own eclecticism. The album unfolds like a Pinterest mood board of regional dance subcultures--Miami bass, New Orleans bounce, and Baltimore club, to name a few--stitched together with the aloof confidence of someone mostly concerned with signaling their sense of taste.

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