CHROMAKOPIA by Tyler, The Creator
82
ChoruScore
14 reviews
Oct 28, 2024
Release Date
Columbia
Label

Tyler, The Creator's CHROMAKOPIA stakes a brazen claim on midlife reinvention, folding neo-soul and Zamrock-tinged flourishes into a narrative obsessed with parenthood, identity and vulnerability. Across 14 professional reviews the critical consensus lands emphatically positive: the record earned an 82/100 consensus score across those reviews, with critics repeatedly pointing to intimate songs and high-concept production as its twin strengths. Critics consistently name “Noid”, “St. Chroma (feat. Daniel Caesar)”, “Like Him” and “Balloon” among the best songs on CHROMAKOPIA, while “Sticky” and “Hey Jane” earn praise for their emotional immediacy and guest energy.

Reviewers praise Tyler's production ambition and the record's cohesion when vulnerability and spectacle align. Several reviews highlight how tracks such as “Noid” and “Take Your Mask Off” turn paranoia, familial reckoning and questions of queerness into gripping set pieces, and how opener “St. Chroma (feat. Daniel Caesar)” and crescendos like “Balloon” set a cinematic tone. At the same time critics note uneven moments: some call parts intentionally messy or theatrically overblown, arguing that bravado sometimes undercuts payoff. That tension - between showmanship and sincere self-examination - is the record's defining dynamic according to multiple professional reviews.

For readers asking whether CHROMAKOPIA is worth your time, the consensus suggests yes: it's a risky, often rewarding leap in Tyler's evolution where the best tracks reward repeat listens and close attention. The album sits as a testament to musical reinvention and personal reckoning, and the detailed reviews below trace how its standout songs crystallize Tyler's new priorities.

Critics' Top Tracks

The standout songs that made critics take notice

1

Sticky

1 mention

"“Sticky,” featuring leaders of the new school..., is an early fan favorite"
The A.V. Club
2

Balloon

2 mentions

"there isn’t a crumb of modesty to be found on the exuberantly shameless “Balloon.”"
The A.V. Club
3

Interlude

1 mention

"‘Interlude’ reinforces this protective instinct as she warns, “Don’t trust these people out here, please, whatever you do"
The Quietus
“Sticky,” featuring leaders of the new school..., is an early fan favorite
T
The A.V. Club
about "Sticky"
Read full review
1 mention
90% sentiment

Track Ratings

How critics rated each track, relative to this album (0-100). Only tracks that made critics feel something are rated.

View:
1

St. Chroma (feat. Daniel Caesar)

11 mentions
100
03:17
2

Rah Tah Tah

10 mentions
70
02:45
3

Noid

14 mentions
100
04:44
4

Darling, I (feat. Teezo Touchdown)

9 mentions
80
04:13
5

Hey Jane

12 mentions
100
04:00
6

I Killed You

9 mentions
67
02:48
7

Judge Judy

10 mentions
35
04:29
8

Sticky (feat. GloRilla, Sexyy Red & Lil Wayne)

11 mentions
95
04:15
9

Take Your Mask Off (feat. Daniel Caesar & LaToiya Williams)

12 mentions
80
04:13
10

Tomorrow

10 mentions
55
03:02
11

Thought I Was Dead (feat. ScHoolboy Q & Santigold)

5 mentions
78
03:27
12

Like Him (feat. Lola Young)

10 mentions
86
04:38
13

Balloon (feat. Doechii)

9 mentions
100
02:34
14

I Hope You Find Your Way Home

7 mentions
100
04:29

What Critics Are Saying

Deep insights from 17 critics who reviewed this album

Critic's Take

Tyler, The Creator frames CHROMAKOPIA as a record that alternates between vulnerability and gleeful swagger, and the best songs prove that duality. The review singles out “Noid” for stripping back celebrity paranoia and “Hey Jane” for its unguarded perspective, while the exuberant “Sticky” and “Balloon” showcase triumphant cross-generational collaboration. Fitzgerald writes with a clear eye for how those tracks foreground Tyler’s themes of fear, fatherhood anxiety, and joy, making them the best tracks on CHROMAKOPIA by emotional weight and pop immediacy. The result is an album that feels like the apex of his career, alive with dramatic moments and tender pullbacks.

Key Points

  • The best song is “Noid” because it most directly and viscerally confronts Tyler’s celebrity paranoia.
  • The album’s core strengths are its emotional range and successful collaborations across generations.

Themes

celebrity and paranoia commitment and relationships family and forgiveness collaboration across generations introspection versus theatricality

Critic's Take

From the opening maternal mantra Tyler constructs a cohesive world on CHROMAKOPIA, where songs like “NOID” and “Like Him” become emotional keystones. Francis Buseko revels in Tyler's controlled chaos, spotlighting “NOID” for its Zamrock-sampled paranoia and “Like Him” for its raw family reckoning. The review makes clear that the best tracks on CHROMAKOPIA are those that marry personal vulnerability to adventurous production, creating an album meant to be heard as a continuous journey. This is an album that insists listeners pay attention, and its strongest songs reward repeated, focused listening.

Key Points

  • ‘NOID’ is the best song for its piercing, Zamrock-sampled exploration of paranoia and fame.
  • The album’s core strength is its seamless continuity and emotional honesty, presenting a cohesive narrative that rewards focused listening.

Themes

self-discovery paranoia and vulnerability family and forgiveness homage to Zamrock cohesive narrative/continuity

Critic's Take

Tyler, the Creator's CHROMAKOPIA mostly succeeds on its biggest moments - especially “Sticky” and the emotionally raw “Like Him” - where his production and vulnerability collide. The record opens grand with “St. Chroma” and leans into paranoia across cuts like “Noid”, but the first half is uneven at times, making the bangers stand out even more. Anthony's voice here is conversational and excited, praising the soundtrack-sized blasts while still calling out flabby bridges and cartoonish bits. Ultimately, the best tracks on CHROMAKOPIA are those that balance Tyler's bold sound design with sincere feeling - which is why “Sticky” and “Like Him” land so hard.

Key Points

  • The best song is “Sticky” because it fuses cartoonish influences, trunk-rattling production and standout features into the record's most thrilling moment.
  • The album's core strengths are Tyler's production imagination and emotional candor, especially when vulnerability balances with bold sound design.

Themes

fame and paranoia intimacy and relationships personal growth and father issues artistic maturity versus past personas

Critic's Take

In a voice equal parts wry and intimate, Tyler, The Creator maps the best tracks on CHROMAKOPIA to moments of reckoning and showmanship. The review repeatedly flags “Sticky” as an album standout for its infectious refrain and guest energy, and highlights “Noid” and “I Killed You” as vital tracks that dig into fear and Blackness with cinematic production. The reviewer frames these best songs as where Tyler oscillates between humble confession and boastful spectacle, which is why listeners hunting for the best songs on CHROMAKOPIA should start with “Sticky”, “Noid”, and “I Killed You”.

Key Points

  • The best song is "Sticky" because of its infectious refrain, guest energy, and status as an album standout.
  • The album’s core strengths are its candid self-examination and the blend of braggadocio with vulnerable storytelling.

Themes

identity fatherhood blackness self-reinvention accountability

Critic's Take

In his most sonically polished and introspective record to date, Tyler, The Creator frames CHROMAKOPIA as an end to a long career arc while spotlighting standout tracks like “St. Chroma” and “Balloon”. The opener “St. Chroma” sets the tone with Daniel Caesar’s vocals and angelic strings, a signpost for the album’s narrative intent. Elsewhere, “Balloon” feels like a rebirth, Tyler experimenting and sounding enlivened next to a red-hot Doechii. The record’s blend of autobiographical detail and thoughtful sonic construction makes its best songs the ones that marry story with fresh production choices.

Key Points

  • “St. Chroma” is the best song because it introduces the album’s narrative with potent strings and Daniel Caesar’s vocals.
  • The album’s core strengths are polished production, intimate storytelling, and successful collaborations that let Tyler experiment.

Themes

self-reinvention aging family and parenthood identity and masks introspection

Critic's Take

Tyler, The Creator’s CHROMAKOPIA is a deliberately messy, often brilliant scramble that highlights its best tracks: “Hey Jane” and “Thought I Was Dead”. Garratt-Stanley praises the sensitivity of “Hey Jane” and the infectious hip-hop bite of “Thought I Was Dead”, even as the album’s misdirections undercut its concept. The record finds beauty within chaos, but a less frantic approach would have helped the songs land more consistently. Overall this is an album where the best songs shine through Tyler’s looseness rather than being constrained by his concept.

Key Points

  • The best song, "Hey Jane", stands out for its sensitivity and intelligent conversation about unexpected pregnancy.
  • The album’s core strength is finding beauty within chaotic production and candid reflections on ageing and parenthood.

Themes

identity/alter-ego parenthood/ageing chaos vs beauty misdirection honesty/vulnerability

Critic's Take

Paul Attard finds that Tyler, The Creator’s CHROMAKOPIA is intentionally messy, and the best tracks emerge when experimentation meets payoff, especially “Balloon” and “Rah Tah Tah”. He praises “Balloon” for sharp pen game and relaxed cadence, and credits “Rah Tah Tah” for channeling a hungry, give-no-fucks energy that recalls earlier eras. Yet Attard warns that songs like “Sticky” and “Noid” show try-hard showmanship that often overwhelms excitement, leaving the record ambitious but saying little.

Key Points

  • The best song, "Balloon," is best because Tyler's pen game and relaxed cadence produce genuine inspired moments.
  • The album's core strength is ambitious experimentation, though its messiness often prioritizes showmanship over payoff.

Themes

midlife crisis messiness vs. ambition experimentation and genre-shifts abortion/sanitized introspection showmanship over payoff

Critic's Take

In his characteristically observant and slightly grandiose voice, Matt Mitchell argues that Tyler, The Creator's CHROMAKOPIA demands repeat listens to reveal its best tracks - especially “Take Your Mask Off” and “Hey Jane”. Mitchell frames “Take Your Mask Off” as the record's apex, praising its soul sample, Daniel Caesar feature and candid queerness, while “Hey Jane” is singled out as the emotional centerpiece, a two-voice interrogation of parenthood. The review reads like a close-reading, insisting these songs reward replays and cement the album among Tyler's most revealing work.

Key Points

  • “Take Your Mask Off” is the best song for its soulful sample, Daniel Caesar harmonies, and candid queerness.
  • The album’s core strengths are vivid storytelling, replay value, and daring, track-by-track sonic variety.

Themes

fame and its costs parenthood and responsibility identity and queerness celebrity culture sonic experimentation

Critic's Take

In a voice equal parts theatrical and intimate, Tyler, The Creator excavates identity on CHROMAKOPIA, where the best tracks reveal his restless humanity. The crown jewel “Take Your Mask Off” unspools the album's thesis, urging authenticity over self-destruction, while opener “St. Chroma” and standout “Darling, I” set the emotional register with soulful crescendos and Neptunes-tinged bounce. Niall Smith's review relishes the record's murky, pensive textures, calling out playful highs like “Balloon” and radio-ready hits such as “Rah Tah Tah” as complementary strengths. Ultimately, the review argues these best songs make CHROMAKOPIA a risky, revealing triumph rather than a retreat into past comforts.

Key Points

  • The best song, "Take Your Mask Off", is lauded as the album's crown jewel for its urgent plea for authenticity and multi-perspective storytelling.
  • The album's core strengths are immersive production, melodic neo-soul hooks, and a thematic focus on identity, loneliness, and self-revelation.

Themes

identity and alter egos loneliness and self-sabotage mortality and ageing neo-soul and jazz-influenced production authenticity vs persona

Critic's Take

Tyler, The Creator’s CHROMAKOPIA finds its best tracks in the intimate, inward moments rather than the bluster - “Hey Jane” and “Thought I Was Dead” stand out as the album’s most affecting pieces. The reviewer's tone is admiring and forensic, noting how “St Chroma” sets the chaptered narrative while “NOID” and “Rah Tah Tah” supply urgent frontal energy. Where the record reels through swagger on “Sticky” and stumbles with the meandering “Judge Judy”, the emotional centre around parenthood makes the best tracks resonate most. Ultimately, the best songs on CHROMAKOPIA are those that trade spectacle for tenderness, most notably “Hey Jane” and “Thought I Was Dead”.

Key Points

  • The best song is "Hey Jane" because its empathetic narrative and sultry R&B make the album's emotional core most resonant.
  • The album’s core strengths are its introspective themes, narrative structure framed by Tyler's mother, and a balance of tenderness with swagger.

Themes

introspection fame and paranoia parenthood/fatherhood identity and masks musical reinvention

Critic's Take

Tyler, The Creator’s CHROMAKOPIA feels unsettled and compelling, its best tracks wrestling with fame and midlife doubt rather than grand personas. The review repeatedly points to songs like “Noid” and “Tomorrow” as places where lyrical contradiction and musical risk pay off, Noid’s distorted guitars and Tomorrow’s flip from boast to emptiness making them among the best tracks on CHROMAKOPIA. That sense of songs ending up somewhere unexpected - from Judge Judy’s sex-rhyme-to-suicide-note pivot to Take Your Mask Off turning accusations on himself - is why listeners asking for the best songs on CHROMAKOPIA will keep returning to those moments. Overall the record’s restless invention makes its highlights enthralling even when the album as a whole refuses neat resolution.

Key Points

  • Noid is best for its abrasive guitar and surprising samples that exemplify the album’s bravest musical turns.
  • The album’s core strength is its restless unpredictability, where lyrical contradiction and sudden musical pivots create enthralling tension.

Themes

fame and its pressures midlife doubt and adulthood identity and masks relationship/parenthood anxieties musical eclecticism and instability
Consequence logo

Consequence

Unknown
Oct 28, 2024
90

Critic's Take

There is a clear through-line of self-examination on CHROMAKOPIA, and Tyler, The Creator never hides the wounds. The reviewer's voice prizes the album's mix of wild production and emotional clarity, singling out songs like “Noid” and “Hey Jane” as where Tyler's rock-infused paranoia and devastating vulnerability land hardest. This is an album that balances the sonic adventurousness of IGOR with the plainspoken introspection of later work, making the best tracks on CHROMAKOPIA feel both daring and intimately revealing. The result is Tyler proving he can take it seriously and, crucially, do it better than most expect.

Key Points

  • The best song, "Hey Jane", is the album's emotional center, depicting a raw pregnancy scare with striking vulnerability.
  • CHROMAKOPIA's core strengths are its blend of sonic adventurousness and intimate self-examination, anchored by maternal themes.

Themes

identity motherhood and maternal advice vulnerability fame and paranoia self-examination
80

Critic's Take

In this review Alex Hudson writes with amused admiration about Tyler, The Creator's CHROMAKOPIA, arguing that the record's best songs - notably “Noid” and “Balloon” - crystallize its themes of parenthood and lineage. Hudson praises the theatrical Zamrock of “Noid” and the "towering crescendo" of “Balloon”, presenting them as the album's emotional peaks. The tone is measured and appreciative, noting Tyler's expanding ambitions while still calling the album mature and era-defining. This reads like a reviewer delighted by refinement, pointing listeners to the best tracks on CHROMAKOPIA as proof of Tyler's continued evolution.

Key Points

  • The best song, exemplified by "Balloon," stands out for its "towering crescendo" and celebratory grandeur.
  • The album's core strengths are thematic cohesion around parenthood and increasingly complex, refined production.

Themes

parenthood sexuality family lineage maturity production ambition
Sputnikmusic logo

Sputnikmusic

Unknown
Unknown date
80

Critic's Take

I grew up with Tyler and on CHROMAKOPIA he feels like a matured artist, balancing personal reflection with sonic daring. Tyler, The Creator leans into questions about kids and family, and the best songs on CHROMAKOPIA - like “St. Chroma (feat. Daniel Caesar)” and “Tomorrow” - most acutely capture that tension. The grooves on “Judge Judy” and the closing warmth of “I Hope You Find Your Way Home” make the record feel cohesive and deliberate. It is his producerly ambition and newfound vocal confidence that make these tracks stand out.

Key Points

  • St. Chroma stands out for Daniel Caesar's contribution and is highlighted by the reviewer as a shining feature.
  • The album's core strengths are its thematic focus on family/fatherhood and Tyler's matured production and vocal confidence.

Themes

fatherhood millennial anxieties intimacy vs isolation family musical maturation