Cheah Reviews: Call Me If You Get Lost

 

The best way to describe Call Me If You Get Lost is slightly disappointing. It’s a solid, smooth-sounding album, but honestly, I feel let down. Maybe my immense anticipation for the album’s release clouded my judgment, raising my expectations of it to unreasonably lofty heights. Or, perhaps my desire to experience a magical senior summer after a dreary year of quarantine demanded nothing but perfection from this album. Regardless, I feel left wanting more. 

​

The main reason behind my petty dismay lies in how well this album meets the standard Tyler set with Flower Boy and Igor. Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t expect Call Me If You Get Lost to be better than these two past albums; however, I did expect it to at least reach that level of enjoyability. Flower Boy captures the afternoon vibe flawlessly— the entire album sounds like it’s coated with beautifully soft, golden-hour sunshine, while its iconic cover and the recurring garden motifs give the album a ring of freedom. Meanwhile, Igor tells the story of heartbreak perfectly, taking listeners on an intimate journey that starts with infatuation and ends with acceptance, astonishing them with its ability to be simultaneously mellow and emotional. Both of these albums have distinct, polished sounds that they carry throughout their entire runtimes, distinguishing them as exceptional. Furthermore, the tracklist of these albums contain songs that fit into the overall theme without sacrificing their individual uniqueness, providing listeners with truly valuable experiences with every listen. 

​

Call Me If You Get Lost (gosh, that’s getting annoying to type) does have a type of sound. It’s a celebratory, loud album that’s extremely diverse yet polished from beginning to end. The album also tells multiple stories, be it The Creator’s success on “RUNITUP”, his romantic affairs on “WILSHIRE”, or his current views of the world on “MANIFESTO”. Additionally, DJ Drama’s recurring vocals and catchphrases gives the album a sense of nostalgia that ties back to the mixtape era of hip hop while also connecting multiple tracks to the theme of travel with his signature catchphrase: “Call me if you get lost suckas!”. 

​

From this point of view, it seems like Call Me If You Get Lost contains every quality needed to reach the Tyler standard. However, the album doesn’t quite reach the level of Flower Boy and Igor, mainly due to its lack of distinction. Even though it’s thoroughly clean, nothing about the album stands out in particular. 

​

Whereas Flower Boy had “See You Again” and Igor had “EARFQUAKE”, Call Me If You Get Lost doesn’t have a standout track, the closest being “WUSYANAME” or “LUMBERJACK” (which are both great songs but are by no means album-defining). Lacking a lead track strips the album of a distinguishing factor, giving it an off-putting vibe that all of its songs are relatively the same in terms of value. It’s also important to add that the songs on both Flower Boy and Igor are simply better than those on Call Me If You Get Lost. Because really, what can compare to “Boredom” or “GONE GONE / THANK YOU”? 

​

Furthermore, even though the album features the theme of travel, the tracklist’s immense musical diversity takes away from the work’s specific characterization. With sounds like the hard-hitting piano samples on “CORSO”, the boombastic trap beats on “LEMONHEAD”, the dark hip-hop instrumental of “LUMBERJACK”, and the tropical flute tune of “HOT WIND BLOWS”, the tracklist feels disconnected, like there’s no specific mood to the album other than it is blaring, oftentimes boastful, and loosely about traveling. Additionally, DJ Drama seriously gets annoying after listening to his obnoxious voice interrupt Tyler on nearly EVERY track. My good friend Clarissa Cabrera puts it perfectly: “DJ Drama’s excessive and frankly annoying outbursts reminds me of that one friend you invited to your party because you felt bad, and unfortunately, he ends up staying around for much longer than anticipated and starts to get rowdy”.

​

The album’s lack of distinguishing songs in conjunction with its poorly connected nature resulted in a strange listening experience— I felt like I had heard sixteen very-different-sounding songs that somehow all sounded the same. Seriously, after listening to the album, it was difficult to distinguish the individual songs from one another, as if the entire tracklist meshed into a near-hour-long musical experience that didn’t tell a coherent story nor carry an overarching feel. Each track off this album (save for “JUGGERNAUT”) would be excellent separate additions to other Tyler albums, but jumbling all of them together feels like Tyler created a mixtape of average-sounding songs. To me, this lack of distinction makes Call Me If You Get Lost fall short of reaching the Tyler standard, hence my (unfortunate) Thanosesque disappointment.