Tyler the Creator: Goblin

Tell him all your problems/He's fucking awesome at listening, SoCal brat Tyler the Creator says of his imagined therapist on the postmodern epic "Yonkers." That line encapsulates every problem haunting Tyler's over-medicated, understimulated generation. Throughout Goblin, the 20-year-old sounds like a socially deformed adolescent strung out on Ritalin. On the title track alone, he rhymes about atheism, chronic masturbation, and pouting in his grandmother's living room. Elsewhere he rallies against higher education ("Radicals") and weaves a deplorable rape narrative that's still perversely funny ("Transylvania"). His punch lines are as layered as they are vulgar: "Catch me in my attic, taking photos of my dad's dick/Drop the beat here to make it extra climactic." The production, handled largely by Tyler himself, sounds like it was mixed and recorded during a particularly wild ketamine trip. In fact, the only thing that pierces Goblin's pervasive air of doom and gloom is the occasional shout of "Free Earl." (5 out of 5 stars)