A rampage of anticipation and excitement followed Tyler, the Creator, a two-time Grammy award-winning rap artist, when he announced the release of his latest project, “Chromakopia,” on Oct. 23.

The album had garnered a cult-like following after the track “St. Chroma” leaked on social media and the provoking marketing that was used to draw attention to the album’s release only heightened the expectation.

Several music videos were released before Oct. 28, which displayed themes such as darkness, paranoia, and horror. Expecting the same themes to reoccur in the album itself, fans began to grasp an idea of the sound of the album, many agreeing that it would potentially be the most experimental and mature project from the renowned artist. However, there was a distinctive disconnect between what was being portrayed and what the album turned out to be.

A majority of the tracks on “Chromakopia” followed a similar song structure and style, which made the project seem boring and redundant to fans who are used to exciting and creative works from Tyler, the Creator.

Aside from the individual songs, there was little to no cohesiveness of the album and the flow between songs felt nearly forced due to the lack of stylistic and productional agreeability. While earlier projects from Tyler such as “Igor” or “Wolf” had a irreversible impact on his career because they combined so many musical genres, “Chromakopia” felt boring, unimportant and had essentially no replay value.

Beginning around 2017, Tyler, the Creator has seemed to follow a very similar and recognizable style. While his albums had recognizable similarities, each had their own collection of special characteristics that differentiated them. In “Flower Boy”, varying features pushed the envelope for a newer R&B style, which ultimately made it fairly different from his later albums. In “Chromakopia”, he made no effort to use an element to separate the album from those prior, which made the rest of his albums feel vastly better, which simultaneously making “Chromakopia” seem lazy.

While the album had a disappointing amount of issues, there were some admirable moments that made it enjoyable. The use of 11 features across 14 tracks of “Chromakopia” gave listeners something to look forward to. Some particularly exciting features were rapper Schoolboy Q, who released an extremely successful and far more exciting album earlier this year, and Daniel Caesar.

Additionally, fans seemed to resonate with the lyrics Tyler chose. His imbedded messages of growing older and facing life’s challenges were great, but the way he produced the songs made them lose critical connection.

With different stylistic and experimental choices from Tyler, the Creator, and priority of passion over haste, “Chromakopia” could have been an extremely important and far more exciting album. While many fans seem to have enjoyed the project, it undeniably had recognizable issues, and was extremely dissatisfying overall.

Grade: C+