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May 10, 2011Goblin is the messy schizoid splatter painting of the child we've raised and ruined, and it's coherent only as a hopeless plea for us to expect nothing from him again.
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May 9, 2011Goblin is just as disturbed and twisted as Tyler's debut. And, moreover, it's every bit as outrageously brilliant.
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Sep 20, 2011This album then delivers anger, honesty and arrogance, all in sporadic scatter-gun fashion: the overriding feeling is confused, uncertain, often unreasonable, but ultimately well intentioned.
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Aug 4, 2011At first listen, you'll think this album is a disappointment and didn't live up to the hype. And maybe it didn't, but this isn't Bastard--it's an album with a much deeper theme and message, with just enough blood-thirsty lines and misogyny to hold the kids over.
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Jun 27, 2011Ultimately, this album is about Tyler and we cannot dictate how somebody chooses to express themselves, so the best thing to do is sit back and let him open himself up. warts and all… So yes, I highly recommend the album.
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Jun 14, 2011Goblin will probably encourage some hand-wringing by non-fans/detractors, and Tyler is well aware of what's within the grooves of his record. It doesn't take radical thought to understand that outrage sells.
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May 24, 2011Sometimes 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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May 20, 2011Ultimately, listening to Goblin feels a lot like reading a creative writing assignment by the kid in the army boots and trench coat who sits in the corner. There are moments of clarity that show a unique talent, if only he weren't trying quite so hard to be unique.
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May 19, 2011Goblin is undeniably, intentionally unpleasant, and any attempt to wave away the unpleasantness is bogus.
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May 18, 2011His constant assurances across Goblin that he doesn't really mean any of the hateful shit that he continues to say, including this disclaimer's attempt to dissuade listeners from actually doing anything Tyler raps about and the title track's assertion that because Goblin is a work of "fiction" Tyler himself shouldn't be blamed for anything bad that results, undermines any of the resonance Goblin might have otherwise had as a, well, purer document of depravity and, at his most extreme, a certain kind of madness.
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May 17, 2011By introducing the concept of rap as therapy through expansive, rambling tracks (that are admittedly a bit too trying on the patience to be played repeatedly), Tyler has certainly set himself apart from the endless sea of new young rappers.
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May 16, 2011It's a lot to take in, but the simple, hypnotic beauty of the stark landscapes Tyler has created here reveals itself more with each subsequent listen.
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May 16, 2011There 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.
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May 16, 2011While 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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May 16, 2011It's an album that leaves you in no doubt that Odd Future's leader is a rare talent.
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May 16, 2011His second solo album, while often truly horrible, is also fascinating and funny.
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May 16, 2011Too bad Kanye--who's also a fan--already used the title last fall, because Goblin is one Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.
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May 13, 2011All this underlying pathos ultimately makes for a sad and honest chapter in Tyler's career - his young, ground-breaking, fascinating, magnetic career that's only like, three years old. He'll get off that couch of his soon enough.
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May 12, 2011Tyler, 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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May 12, 2011He clutches that control so tightly that the album has turned out insular and ill-conceived.
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May 11, 2011It'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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May 11, 2011His fantasies and lack of filter are still huge roadblocks for many if not most listeners. They're depraved and despicable, tied in part to a long and unfortunate legacy of gangster and street rap. They're also one aspect of a larger, character-driven story -- a license that we grant to visual arts, film, and literature but rarely to pop music.
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May 10, 2011The insanity in Tyler's ever-more-popular rap character feels real because he too recognizes it. He's crazy and it's crazy that we're listening, but maybe that makes the actual world slightly more sane. Oh, the horror.
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May 10, 2011Brash and unwieldy as it seems on the surface, Goblin is a deliberately crafted work of art, one of the densest and most provocative statements that independent rap has produced in years.
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May 10, 2011The repugnant misogynistic bullshit on Goblin sort of cancels any goodwill I have toward the guy. Particularly because it feels more like search engine optimization; Tyler makes no bones about his desire to hit the pop charts, and on too much of Goblin, he's doing it in the tawdriest way possible.
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May 10, 2011It 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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May 10, 2011Those songs are products of an ambition that hasn't quite been tamed, but on the majority of Goblin, Tyler genuinely uses his creative freedom to create the fantastic.
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May 10, 2011The cussing, the horror, the anger, the disappointment, the alienation, the frustration, while real and scary and sad, gets tiresome. 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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May 10, 2011While the production may not be as exciting as the first serving, it helps to connect Goblin's deeper meanings with their formation on Bastard.
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May 10, 2011If Tyler's lyrics are early-Eminem evil, his offhandedly lush, left-field R&B-tinged tracks are like strips of light sneaking through the cracks of a lunatic's drawn blinds.
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May 9, 2011Is the entire thing about 20 minutes too long? Probably. 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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May 9, 2011It all sounds a little off, at times broken or aggressively annoying, an intentionally wobbly frame around an imagination that's churning at 1000 miles an hour. Call it avant-garde at your own risk, but at times this music has as much in common with electro-punk as it does hip-hop.
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May 9, 2011There are many arguments for and against Tyler's mouth and mind, but once the language barrier is crossed and ears become numb, the real brilliance of Goblin can be heard.
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May 9, 2011Pairing beats both aggressively sinister and minimalist-sleek, Tyler--when he's not bloating the album with narratives--continues to prove himself a capable wordsmith and beatmaker.
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May 9, 2011The question, regrettably, becomes whether or not their transgressive lyrics are funny, whether they're 'appropriate' in a world where we're hung up on identity politics. This difference is significant, and it's precisely here where our reaction to Goblin becomes less weighted: if it's all in jest, who really cares about the relationship between his lyrics and our values?
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MojoDec 12, 2011Irksome and intriguing, compelling and calculated, Goblin confounds at every turn. [Aug. 2011, p. 104]
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The WireAug 17, 2011It's a shame that the the young skate rat seems to be so caught up in his own hype, as beneath the bluster and amped-up angst, there is something interesting going on. [Jul 2011, p.54]
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 170 out of 258
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Mixed: 63 out of 258
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Negative: 25 out of 258
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Oct 29, 2011
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Jul 22, 2011
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May 12, 2011