The Brilliance Of Igor’s Album Cover Design

This year marks the fifth anniversary of Igor, Tyler the Creator’s album.

Even for its acclaim at the Grammy Awards as the Best Rap Album and nomination at the BET Hip Hop Awards, its unorthodox musical experimentation and lyricism continues to be severely underappreciated by the music industry. Cathartic, creative, and emotionally-tumultuous, the album is a psychedelic experience that draws upon various genres, from traditional R&B to alternative rock to techno, to drag the listener deep into its story of love and heartbreak. While I often use this platform to discuss film, the provocative and immersive storytelling of Igor features a uniquely cinematic quality in fleshing out the titular character through sound.

The album starts with a dark, synth-heavy interlude (“Igor’s Theme”) that forewarns of the impending tragedy: the dangerously obsessive love triangle involving the alter-ego, Igor, a nod to the stock archetype that typically plays the hunch-backed laboratory assistant of Frankenstein. (Although, sidenote: the character Igor wasn’t written in Mary Shelley’s original novel.) Almost every track is introduced by a tape recording, presumably that of Igor’s post-narration, that sets the stage for the next chapter. It reveals how Igor falls in love (“I Think” and “EARFQUAKE”) only to realize his feelings are unreciprocated because Igor’s…