DON'T TAP THE GLASS

With this album, Tyler is grabbing us by the shoulders to convince us to live as though no one’s watching. He’s trying to keep us moving and off of our phones, even if it’s for just 29 minutes at a time.

Over the past eight years a strong case has been made for Tyler being the most interesting figure in modern rap music, and despite the low-stakes presentation Don’t Tap The Glass furthers this case with its inventive arrangements, fiery verses and club-ready production.

Clocking in at a chiselled 28 minutes, ‘Don’t Tap The Glass’ is primarily anchored by disco-flavoured raps and Kangol-clad ’80s hip-hop. ‘Stop Playing With Me’ digs up, dusts off and digitises some Whodini and Run DMC-style drums to great effect

It’s still eclectic in its choice of source material – opener Big Poe samples Busta Rhymes and a 2015 collaborative album made by Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood, Shye Ben Tzur and India’s Rajasthan Express – but ultimately feels more narrow and focused. Almost all of its 10 tracks seem fixated on the dancefloor.

DON'T TAP emphasises that, really, he’s simply multifaceted. We all have radically different sides to who we are, and Tyler’s committed to expressing as much of himself as possible, from the cliché to the novel, the ugly to the beautiful, the cold-blooded to the empathetic.

Despite its big tent and low stakes, DON’T TAP THE GLASS is a record only Tyler could make: retro but not nostalgic; tender but steely; jangly yet slick.

It’s good to see Tyler having some real fun with it, but for a 28-minute project that should be all killer no filler, DON'T TAP THE GLASS warrants more bite.

Don’t Tap the Glass may not offer new twists, but it’s still fun to hear Tyler conjure magic tricks like “Don’t Worry, Baby,” which spools together an R&Bass rhythm and is reminiscent of Ghost Town DJs’ “My Boo” and K.P. & Envyi’s “Swing My Way.” If this 10-track album has problems, it’s not a relative lack of candor, but Tyler’s refusal to break from a patented sound.

As palate cleansers go, ‘DON’T TAP THE GLASS’ does its job: a mash-up of shrewd and slinky dancefloor capers that dials back the conceptual overload and hits the reset button.