Goblin
| Tyler, the Creator
Goblin
Goblin is the debut studio album by American rapper Tyler, the Creator. It was released on May 10, 2011, by XL Recordings. Goblin continues Tyler's dialogues with his fictional therapist Dr. TC, first heard on his 2009 mixtape, Bastard. The album's songs were produced almost entirely from Tyler himself, along with a contribution from fellow Odd Future member Left Brain. The album features guest appearances from Odd Future members Frank Ocean, Hodgy Beats, Jasper Dolphin, Taco, Domo Genesis, Mike G and Syd. The album cover features Buffalo Bill at age 19. - Wikipedia
Critic Reviews
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Pitchfork
Following months of anticipation and hype, Odd Future's anarchic leader drops his second full-length: the bleak and uncompromising Goblin.
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Focus Hip Hop
This is a good album. It could be better, but I’m satisfied with it. It’s dope to me.
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Rolling Stone
His second solo disc (and first on a proper label) is a shock-and-awe psycho-drama — complete with lyrics about stabbing Bruno Mars, hating his absentee dad, eating Xannies and dressing up in panties, tied together by a dialog with a therapist (voiced by Tyler) who really doesn’t seem to be helping much.
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Slant Magazine
Queerly irresistible in the same way one idly stares at road kill, Goblin is a masterpiece for those capable of stomaching it.
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AV Club
Brash and unwieldy as it seems on the surface, Goblin is a deliberately crafted work of art, one of the densest and most provocative statements independent rap has produced in years.
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The Guardian
Moral qualms aside, the first official album from the Odd Future star is too long and oppressive
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Consequence of Sound
So after Goblin drags on well past the one-hour mark, after hearing several tracks that are musically and lyrically insulting, after ideas and themes are lazily repackaged, after Tyler and his crew spit misogynistic and homophobic raps without agency one-too-many times, there’s a bittersweet sense of pity you feel for the kid.
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Jersey Beat
A rollercoaster of evil that no moral ear can deny.
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Pretty Much Amazing
For better or for worse or for somewhere in between, Goblin’s flaws come hand in hand with its strengths.
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Sputnik Music
And, against all odds, Goblin is all the better for it.
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Spin
But the obvious lack of outside meddling proves that Tyler’s auteur status remains intact. He is, in the parlance of our times, still swaggin’. Now maybe he can get to work on winning that Grammy.
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BBC
Controversy aside, the young producer/MC is a breath of fresh air.
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The Washington Post
Ultimately the disc’s carnival of grotesqueries and grievances overwhelms what’s good about it, and “Goblin” winds up being more shock than art.
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Velocities in Music
Definitely a maturation, but still a ways off from a masterpiece.
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HipHop DX
Tyler, the Creator still achieves an engrossing dystopian vision of Hip Hop that refuses to compromise to what fans and industry critics demand of him.
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Drowned in Sound
There are muddled, muffled messages here, whispers of golden horizons and awards cluttering the shelves; it’s just a shame that the filler is so predictably repugnant and the brilliant gems so widely scattered. Radical? Not yet, kid, not quite.
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Top 5 Rap Reviews
GOBLIN is one of OFWGKTA’s highlights, and while musically it isn’t that strong of an album, conceptually, it is quite thick.
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Prefix Magazine
Tyler makes music that begs to be felt, not debated or considered. Check your brain at the door
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Amino Apps
This is a great album and Tyler is a genius. It does have its many flaws though. The run time is good. There isn't any bad songs either.
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Earbuddy
Goblin really began to wear on me near the end of the album. I needed a break with birds chirping, sun shining, and a cool breeze blowing by me.
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LA Now
That’s a lot of Tyler, and so much ego-maniacal nihilism, while fascinating and at times revolutionary, wears thin very quickly.
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Tiny Mix Tapes
But by the end of “Golden,” Goblin’s climactic, plot-revealing closer, it’s clear that any desire for identification is futile, as Tyler’s own identity is perhaps the most fractured and dubious of all. It’s just too bad he felt the need to include footnotes.
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Rockhaq
This album is powerful, dark, and relatable. However, I knock him down for some of the lyric content which I definitely do not agree with.
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All Music
While the album is a revolutionary object in that such fantastic filth was born and flourished outside the corporate -- and even indie -- music industry, production is about the only thing to be objective about, as everything else is polarizing and preaching to the converted.
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No Ripcord
This is a first-rate album, a high quality article that aims to push the boundaries of rap without diving headlong into incongruent and joyless experimentalism. This album, however, will probably offend you; it takes a very tolerant type not to flair at some of Tyler’s more testing flows – providing you don’t, you’ll find instead a great record by one of the most exciting talents in urban culture right now.
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Pop Matters
It’s that sort of shameful thing that would prevent us from seeing Goblin for what it really is: a massive spoonful of marvelous hip-hop medicine, of the most unnerving, hyperreal humour you may well ever hear.
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Independent
His second solo album, while often truly horrible, is also fascinating and funny.
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Giant Bomb
I just didn't like it. If you do, chanting SWAG SWAG SWAG in your bedroom, that's totally fine; this is just my opinion.
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Pinpoint Music
But there’s nothing to “get” here, Goblin is just bad. And homophobic. And misogynistic. And I know why Goblin isn’t anything more.
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Rap Reviews
All that is central to this album is anger. Sometimes this anger is ugly and interesting. Sometimes it is shallow and shocking. But something tells me that, while I have no trouble dismissing loads of offensive hip-hop, I won't be able to write this one off so easily.
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The Pop Break
Clever and at times very versatile in his execution, the Odd Future leader may be creating this sound on Goblin just to mock the hype that we have so easily fed into.
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Word is Bond
Tyler shows enough glimpses on the album for me to recognise that he’s a force to be reckoned with.
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Beats Per Minute
It may be a sprawling, jumbled mess, but if Goblin‘s primary reason for being is to further convince us just how completely nuts Tyler actually is, then I’d say it’s a success.
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Obscure Sound
I happen to think the filler outweighs quality on Goblin, but optimistically with most of these filler being forms of experimentation that will eventually culminate in a sleeker, more established achievement.
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Now Toronto
It all sounds like he's just more comfortable releasing music for his rabid online audience.
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Sick Chirpse
At the forefront of an eerily hellish beat, he calls out his critics, attacks the nay-sayers and compiles all his angry tweets.
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LA Music Blog
Overall, this album doesn’t seem as intimate as Bastard, but it still hits on Tyler’s personal issues.
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Rap Dose
Get lost in the beats, zone out, and let Tyler speak.
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ihiphop
It is clear that Tyler, The Creator is just another unfortunate soul who had the misfortune of living up to the hype of his obstinate fan base.
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Spin or Bin Music
It's something different. And something brilliant.
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Transistor
Unlike most rap albums which feature tracks that feel like they’d be better on a B-side or not on a record at all, every track on this album is necessary for explaining the story of a fictional Tyler.
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Boomkat
‘Goblin’ might just be the most important record of 2011, and whatever you think of it, it’s surely going to be the record that lodges itself in your mind more than just about anything else I can think of. A huge recommendation.
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Tuscan Weekly
Even when Goblin astounds, it still feels like death: Lurching and dense beats assault Tyler's barked, adenoidal raps.
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