Cherry Bomb received generally positive reviews from critics. It debuted at number four on the US Billboard 200, selling 51,000 copies in its first week.
Background
In November 2014, Larry Fitzmaurice wrote a piece for The Fader, giving details about a follow-up to Tyler, the Creator's third studio album, Wolf (2013). Fitzmaurice wrote the album features a multitude of guests, but likely no features from other Odd Future members, the rap group of which Tyler is the face, stating: "Everyone's on their own island." Tyler cited artist Stevie Wonder as his inspiration for the album. Associate editor of The Fader, Matthew Trammel, reported that the album would feature Tyler lyrically tackling many current social issues. Trammel noted that "[Tyler] offers up heavy-handed indictments of gang culture and rapper consumerism, calling them detrimental not just to the progress of his race, but to humanity as a whole".[1] Guests that were rumored to appear included Jay-Z, Rick Ross, Keyshia Cole, Cherry Glazerr, Willow Smith, Leon Ware, and Kali Uchis.[1]
Recording and production
Cherry Bomb was recorded in Tyler's home studio as well as other studios in California.[3] The sample for "Deathcamp" was rejected shortly before the album was due to be turned in, so some elements of the song were re-recorded.[3] The string section featured in the song "2Seater" was composed by Tyler and recorded at German composer Hans Zimmer's studio; it marked Tyler's first time overseeing a live orchestra.[3] "Run" was recorded in Tyler's living room and features harmonic vocals from Chaz Bundick who also provided guitar chords to the song "Fucking Young".[3] "Find Your Wings" initially featured vocals from singers Samantha Nelson, Onitsha Shaw and Tiffany Palmer. The final version features vocals from Kali Uchis.[3]Kanye West explained that he rewrote his lines for the song "Smuckers" after he heard Tyler's and Lil Wayne's verses to the song.[3]ASAP Rocky was present during some album sessions despite not being featured on the album.[3] The title for the song "The Brown Stains of Darkeese Latifah Part 6-12 (Remix)" was made intentionally long. Its original title was "The Brown Stains of Blackeese Latifah Part 6-12 (The Remix) (Rough Draft) (Club Edit) (Rodney Jerkins Mix)".[2] Tyler explained in a Hot 97 interview in 2015 that, after making the song, he and others felt that they should name the song with "the blackest name that [they] could think of".[4]
Music and lyrics
The album's opening song, "Deathcamp", has been compared to N.E.R.D.'s debut album In Search of... (2001), particularly the song "Lapdance". Tyler specifically mentions the album in the song with the lines "In Search of... did more for me than Illmatic".[5] Andrew Unterberger of Spin also compared "Deathcamp" to In Search of... and also pointed out its four-count intro commonly used in Pharrell-produced songs.[6] Matthew Ramirez of Pitchfork likened "Deathcamp" to the Stooges, Glassjaw, Trash Talk, Lil Wayne's seventh studio album Rebirth as well as N.E.R.D.[7] In response to claims of homophobia, Tyler jokingly replaces the word "faggot" with "book" to refer to critics on the song "Buffalo".[6] David Jeffries of AllMusic described the track "Find Your Wings" as "smooth and jazzy", and the title track "Cherry Bomb" as "drill 'n' bass [...] as muted trumpets, xylophones, crunching guitars, and Atari Teenage Riot-style compression all fly by".[8] The title track has also been compared to the works of experimental hip hop group Death Grips.[5] A portion of the song "The Brown Stains of Darkeese Latifah Part 6-12 (Remix)" has a cadence similar to N.E.R.D member Pharrell Williams.[5] The lyrics of "Fucking Young / Perfect" details Tyler's attraction to a girl six years younger than him.[9] Ramirez described "Fucking Young" as "a warm-sounding piece of pop music".[7] Unterberger compared the hook, sung by Charlie Wilson, to "'60s sleaze-pop".[6]
Promotion and release
On April 9, 2015, Rap-Up reported that Tyler had announced his Cherry Bomb Tour, which will visit various locations around the world, starting with his live debut of songs from the album at Coachella on April 11 to September 13, in Tokyo.[10] On the same day, after announcing his Golf Media app and Golf Magazine, Tyler released a music video for the song "Fucking Young" on the app and on YouTube.[11] Tyler announced on Twitter that Cherry Bomb will receive a physical release two weeks, after its digital release and it would have five different album covers.[12] On April 12, 2015, the full track list was revealed via Tyler's Instagram.[13]
Singles
On April 9, 2015, the lead and second single, "Deathcamp" and "Fucking Young / Perfect" were released consecutively on iTunes Store, and was made available for download before the album's release.[11][14] The music video for "Fucking Young" contains a snippet of an accompanying music video for "Deathcamp".[15] A music video for "Perfect" was released on February 8, 2016.[16]
Other songs
On October 1, 2015, a dual music video for "Buffalo" and "Find Your Wings" was released to the Odd Future YouTube channel. The video for "Buffalo" features Tyler, with his entire body painted white, escaping a hanging, then being chased by an all black angry mob. The "Find Your Wings" portion of the video features Tyler and other backing members of Odd Future performing the song on a show stylized as a 1970s music show.[17]
Instrumentals
On October 12, 2018, Tyler, the Creator released the instrumentals of Cherry Bomb on a two-disc expanded edition of the album. Upon its release, Tyler described Cherry Bomb as "the music I've always wanted to make".[18]
Cherry Bomb was met with generally positive reviews. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 69, based on 23 reviews.[20] Aggregator AnyDecentMusic? gave it 6.0 out of 10, based on their assessment of the critical consensus.[19]
David Jeffries of AllMusic said, "Returning customers who like Tyler the ringleader, or Tyler the producer, will find this to be too much of a good thing, and can embrace the free-form Cherry Bomb as another freaky trip worth taking".[8] Angel Diaz of Complex said, "Cherry Bomb is Tyler's greatest creation to date. However, the album is bit of a mess in the beginning, and while Tyler's grown immensely as a producer, his rapping isn't consistently up to par".[5]The Guardian's Paul Lester described the album's sound as "fizzy sonics and lush eruptions of synths and strings" in his 3/5 star review for the album, whilst also noting the influence of N.E.R.D, comparing the opening song "Deathcamp" to N.E.R.D's 2001 release "Lapdance".[9]
Kellan Miller of HipHopDX said, "Musically, he is maturing before our very eyes".[23] Louis Pattison of NME said, "Cherry Bomb might be the tightest, leanest Tyler album yet".[24] Matthew Ramirez of Pitchfork said, "His greatest strength has always been world-building, using a synth-heavy blitz of candy-colored jazz chords taken straight (sometimes blatantly so) from the Pharrell handbook. Cherry Bomb isn't exactly a hard left turn from this lane, but it is a quick swerve".[7] Jon Dolan of Rolling Stone said, "Tyler's self-produced new one flows from the Neptunes tribute "Deathcamp" to the summery whimsy of "Find Your Wings"".[25] Dean Van Nguyen of Clash said, "If anything, the album is held back by his ambition—imprudent testing falls short of his usual standards. There are lessons to be learned here, and as a document of Tyler's growth, this may well be looked back upon as a watershed moment".[27]
Tom Breihan, writing for Stereogum, felt the album was "cluttered and chaotic" but also believed it to be an improvement on Tyler's previous studio album Wolf (2013). Breihan also praised the album's musical choices for being "brave and commendable" but added that "I'm not sure they add up to a great song".[28] Calum Slingerland of Exclaim! praised Tyler's work with R&B and soul music sounds on "Find Your Wings" and "Fucking Young", though their juxtaposition with moments of poorly-mixed, blown out aggression lessened their effect.[22] Rachel Chesbrough of XXL said, "Cherry Bomb is his greatest achievement thus far, solidifying his place in the game, with or without the conspicuously absent Odd Future crew".[26] Evan Rytlewski of The A.V. Club said, "For all their blown-out abrasion, though, Tyler's harder tracks never dazzle the way West's industrial experiments did. They merely cloy".[21] Andrew Unterberger of Spin said, "Cherry Bomb is both impressive in its ambition and absolutely stunning in its aimlessness, weaving countless genres into multi-part suites but still coming off undercooked in its entirety".[6]
