Dissect - S10E7 - PUPPET by Tyler, The Creator

Episode Date: November 29, 2022

Our season-long analysis of IGOR continues with the album's emotional rock bottom, PUPPET. Tyler realizes he's lost himself in his desperate pursuit of pleasing his crush, and looks to a symbolic patriarch, played by Kanye West, to help find his way. Shop Season 10 merchandise here. Follow us on TikTok, Instagram, and Twitter. Host, EP, Writer: Cole Cuchna Writer: Camden Ostrander Audio Editor: Kevin Pooler Theme Music: Birocratic Recreations: Andrew Atwood Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

From Spotify, this is Dissect, long-form musical analysis broken into short digestible episodes. This is episode 7 of our season-long examination of Tyler the creator's Igor. I'm your host, Cole Kushner. Last time I dissect, we examined Igor's seventh track, A Boy is a Gun. There we witnessed several specific moments that exposed Tyler's dichotomous relationship with his crush. This dichotomy was expressed through the song's central gun metaphor, which Tyler said made him feel safe, but also put him in emotional danger. The song then ended with Tyler upset that his crush brought the girl to their breakfast date,

leading Tyler to finally break things off with him. This direct rejection would have us thinking that Tyler is once and for all done with this guy. And this is what makes what happens next all the more surprising, as Igor continues into its next track, the subject of our episode today, Puppet. Ayo, I call you and talk, I want to walk to your friend or no after I start. My vehicle drive to your city, because we live in a little. Puppet was Pauk, land at your driveway and put it in Pauk, then do the third line of this verse,

the back to my house and we pack up a bites and we rock through the Paltches. A song. Puppet was produced by Tyler Acoma, with additional vocals by Santa Gold and Jesse Wilson, and a guest verse from Kanye West. The beginning of Puppet rests on two musical techniques occurring simultaneously, an ostinado and a descending chromatic bass line. An ostinado is a short musical phrase that repeats while things happen around it. Tyler's Ostinato is this repeating three-note phrase.

Below this ostinado, the 808s play a descending chromatic bass line, which just means that the bass moves down to the next lowest note, even when that note doesn't belong in the key signature. You'll often find descending chromatic lines and emotional ballads, which can be traced back to 1688's Dido's Lament by Henry Purcell. Listen closely to the descending bass line. A more recent example of a descending chromatic line comes in the jazz standard, My Funny Valentine.

We can also hear it in the beautiful ballad Something by the Beatles. For me, when used correctly, descending chromatic lines create incredibly potent and emotional musical moments. And so it's incredibly fitting that Tyler uses one here in what clearly feels like Igor's saddest song, the emotional low point of the entire album. We live in our apart, land at your driveway and put it in park, then do the third line of this verse, to back to my house and we pack up a bike, and we rock through the park, it's the sun,

got that's all I want, other than Ed, I change your end, financial freedom, yeah, I want your company, I need your company, I want you to want for me, I can maneuver, without you next to me, it's so complex to me. Tyler begins the verse with his trademark Ayo, usually a sign he's about to drop bars. He raps, I want to talk, I want to call you and talk.

I want to walk to your front door and knock. after I start my vehicle, drive to your city because we live an hour apart. Beginning with a desire to communicate, which he's desired all album long, Tyler's first lines are slightly repetitive in diction and structure, reflecting the effort and repeated nature of his attempts to connect with his love interest. Notably, Tyler's the one putting in all the work, traveling an hour just to knock on the guy's door, itself symbolic of the distance between them.

It would appear that his attempts to break things off at the end of a boy's gun was an empty threat. His gun wasn't loaded after all, as we now find him wanting to talk things out again. He continues, land at your driveway and put it in park, then do the third line of this verse. According to Tyler's official transcript, the third line of this verse is, I want to walk to your front door and knock, meaning he's arrived after the long drive and ready to knock on his door. The structure of the verse so far is important. Tyler's going back and forth.

He's all turned around in every direction, twisted up and disoriented by the tumult of this relationship. Tyler then wraps, then back to my house, and we pack up our bikes and we ride through the park, chase the sun. They're traveling to do more traveling, from car to bike. Notice that Tyler is willing to drive a total of two hours just to ride bikes with the guy, and we assume he'll drive him home, which would actually make it four total hours if he drives there and back twice. All of this to, as Tyler says, chase the sun, an idea that is obviously idyllic to him,

with the sun evoking the warm feeling he has one with this guy, outdoors under the sun, riding bikes, all things we know Tyler loves. Chase the Sun is also a phrase Tyler has used elsewhere. His golf floor company has the tagline for the sun seekers, and when he donated bicycles to various boys and girls clubs, they came with the instruction, go chase the sun. Tyler then continues, God, that's all I want, other than air, oxygen, and financial freedom. The use of God here makes this want feel more like a prayer. Air and oxygen also stand out because of Tyler's focus on breathing throughout the album, and as we'll discover later, foreshadows the end of the song, a critical point in the album's narrative. The use of air and oxygen might also convey that this

guy is as important to Tyler as air itself, meaning that he can't live without him. The idea of wanting the financial freedom to do things like drive several hours just to ride bikes leads to some wordplay. I want your company. I need your company. I want you to want from me. Interestingly, Tyler equates the company of this guy with the business connotation of a company, in line with Tyler constantly associating time with money on this album to express all that he's spent or invested in this relationship. He's giving it everything he has and all he wants in return is his company. Tyler ends the verse lamenting, I can't maneuver without you next to me.

It's so complex to me. Once again, Tyler reinforces the travel and vehicle motifs while capping off his simple desire of wanting this guy's company, be it riding shotgun in the passenger or on a bike chasing the warmth of the sun. What is your wish? Your number one, one on my list. See, I'm Santa. Where's Rudolph? Your parricity.

I do not have some control. I'm starting to wind. It's just my free will of yours. With the second verse, Tyler introduces more musical material, beginning with rich piano chords harmonizing over the descending bass and ostinado. The sequence is an A major ninth, G sharp minor seventh, G major seventh,

and a G major seventh, and a G major ninth. We also hear a Glock and spiel type instrument outlining the chords, adding an orchestral delicacy. Finally, there's some strings filling in the middle register. Over these additional instruments, Tyler switches his focus from his wants to the guy's needs. He begins,

What do you need? Do you need bread? This calls back to the pre-chorus of I think and the line, waste of bread, I need your attention. With Tyler once again executing wordplay on the act of needing bread, as in the process of mixing bread-making ingredients. But as we observe then, bread is also selling for money. In exchange for his company, his time and attention, it seems Tyler is willing to give the guy money or support him,

calling back to the line and boyfriend, I invested too much time, I done spent all of my money. We might begin to wonder if the crush is taking advantage of Tyler's wealth, his financial freedom, stringing him along to extract as much as he can. The line, Do You Need This, Keys us in on the intimacy of the verse, as it appears Tyler is directly talking to the guy while together with him. He refers to this, something visible to the guy in him, but unclear to us. But the following line might clue us in to what it could be, as Tyler then wraps,

Do You Need a Hug? This line stands out because a hug is an obvious overdub. Tyler's voice sounds completely different, and it's even lower in the mix. Take another listen. A hug also breaks the rhyme scheme, as it should rhyme with bread. When a fan pointed this out on Twitter and asked Tyler if another word was supposed to go in that spot, Tyler responded with a smiley face,

insinuating that this fan was correct. And it appears that the original line was, Do you need head? As in Tyler offering oral sex, which is seemingly confirmed by the fact that Tyler would often say, Do you need head when performing the song live? With this in mind, the previous

Do You Need This appears to refer to Tyler's wang, and together he's asking the guy if he needs dick or head. Tyler is aiming to please him, be it with money or sexual pleasure of his choosing. Tyler's even willing to leave if that's what'll make him happy, as he says, Do you need to be alone? I could wrap this up and get the fuck away instead.

He then builds off of rap, as in rapping presents, to say, What is your wish? It can be granted. You're number one, one on my list. See, I am Santa. As if to convey his endless generosity and willingness to please, Tyler vows to make anything possible for his love,

using the metaphor of Santa Claus, the infinite giver of gifts. But in a bit of a twist, the crush undercuts Tyler's proposed devotion asking, Where is Rudolph? By this, we assume he means the girl, which triggers Tyler to respond, you're parasitic. It's a sudden change of emotion, much like we heard throughout a boy's a gun. For all of Tyler's posturing, when the guy acts outside of his desires or reveals an impulse that he can't control or act upon, he's powerless, dejected,

left calling his love a parasite, a leech. This also contributes to the notion that the guy might just be there to siphon Tyler's resources to take advantage of his achievements without contributing. Now this moment marks a turning point in the song and a revelation in the album's narrative. As Tyler continues, I do not have self-control. I'm starting to wonder, is this my free will or yours? Gone now are the sweet offerings of generosity, Tyler's self-reflective, realizing the severity of his infatuation. While the line I do not have self-control is simple enough to understand, it might also be a reference to his friend Frank Ocean and his song Self-control on some album called

blonde or something. There, Frank sings about a love lost, who has moved on to another relationship, saying, You made me lose myself control, and keep a place for me, I'll sleep between y'all, it's nothing. It's a love triangle reminiscent of Igor, with Frank, like Tyler, playing the subservient role. Tyler finishes the verse by rapping, I'm starting to wonder, is this my free will or yours? We then here repeated, yours, yours, as if his subconscious echoes the answer to his own question. Once more, the free and free will invites the idea of currency. While Tyler may have financial freedom, he's lost his autonomy through this relationship, which is also reflected in predominantly using I in the first verse to the U of the second verse.

The choices he's making are no longer for himself or for his happiness. He's more concerned with this guy and puts him above himself. This guy has complete control of Tyler's actions. He's got him by the strings. Puppet is ushered into its course by a brief appearance of the familiar distorted bass, which rears its head for a few notes before disappearing. After this bass fill, the track transitions into a sample of Zars' 1970 song called Today. Upon hearing the sample of Zars Today, we realize that Puppet's verse material was based on that song,

explaining the seamless transition between Tyler's original material and the sample that comes in on the chorus. And like many of the samples used on Igor, when we zoom in on Zars Today, we find that its lyrics lend thematic weight to puppet's own themes, as the song is about a defeated lover who seems to be hopeless after a breakup. The lyrics are, quote, I know I'm a loser, I just cannot win, and I know I'm no chooser, is that such a sin? Along with the song's general melancholy, the idea of being a loser fits nicely with the running metaphor of Igor in this moment, with Tyler trying to convince his crush to vote Igor in the race between him and the girl, and ultimately losing the race. There's also prominent orchestral strings throughout the sample,

with strings as in puppet strings, tying nicely into the hook's central metaphor. Tyler sings, I'm your puppet. You control me. I'm your puppet. I don't know me. Like Tyler's exposed and vulnerable voice, these lyrics are straightforward and raw. In terms of the puppet analogy, we first think of Igor's third track, I think, when he foreshadowed this dynamic singing, Waste of bread, I need your attention, I'm off balance, I need some fixin. I'm your puppet, you are Jim Henson. At that point in the narrative, Tyler was able to dismiss these feelings, swept up as he was in the early euphoria of falling in love. when it's all too easy to overlook or excuse warning signs.

Because the two never solved their communication problems, Tyler's fear of abandonment drove him to sacrifice his own needs in order to keep this guy around, which little by little turned him into a puppet. He's completely lost his sense of identity because of this relationship, and he's unsure who he is anymore. In the background, we hear the voice of Kanye West singing, Did I wait too long?

While we'll get into the symbolism of Yeh appearing on puppet in a few minutes, the idea of waiting too long falls in line with Igor's time motif. As we covered on running out of time, the timing of when two people meet very often regulates how that connection develops and how sustainable the relationship ultimately is. Now in the throes of loss, the loss of self and the loss of this love, Tyler's scrutinizing his past decisions, trying to put together just how he ended up at this emotional crossroads. Did he wait too long to express how he really felt? Did he wait too long to cut things off? Was he too overbearing in his infatuation? What more or less could he have done?

As we just heard, Puppets Hook develops in its immediate repetition, with piano, bells, and lush female backing harmonies introduced into this beautiful musical texture. Notably, Tyler's voice actually fades out from his own chorus, allowing the backing vocals to take the lead in the latter moments of the hook. This is important to note because from this point on, Tyler will not return in the song as a main vocalist. And so did you catch what Tyler just did? Precisely when he's singing about losing his autonomy and sense of self,

he literally disappears, a symbolic musical reflection of this loss of identity. Narratively speaking, this is Tyler's rock-bottom moment, and we wonder if and how he'll be resurrected, how he'll rediscover himself and regain his autonomy. In traditional storytelling structures like the hero's journey, this is often done with the help of a mentor, a wise, often older figure who offers sage advice and guides the hero back on their path. And when you know, it's precisely after Tyler fades away from the song that Ye enters to deliver his verse, which tellingly begins with the line, Your Lost Son.

We'll dissect Ye's verse, along with the rest of Puppet, right after the break. Welcome back to Dissect. Before the break, we heard the conclusion of Puppet's only hook, with Tyler fading away from the song just as he's singing about losing himself. It's at this moment that Yei enters Puppet to deliver his unpolished guest verse. Gay begins his verse talking directly to Tyler, saying, You Lost Son, which is in line with Tyler's mission on the chorus that, I don't know me.

Yee calling Tyler's son makes clear his position as a father figure, that Yee is in fact playing the patriarch in Ecor's narrative. It's a symbolic role not unlike the way Tyler views his musical idols like Yeh and Farrell in real life. Time and again, Tyler has gone out of his way to formally thank his idols for being the male figure he never had growing up. For instance, in 2016, on the 10th anniversary of Farrell's album, In My Mind, Tyler took to Facebook to write a lengthy tribute, which includes this quote.

I am now a man who has found success in many things, running businesses, a young entrepreneur, all because I believed you when you said I could. I never had a father around, no uncles, no brothers, nothing. So thank you for being my role model and the male figure I gravitated to, allowing me to embrace being different and trusting my ideas. I love you, thank you, unquote. Even as far back as 2008, when Tyler was 18, he posted on the odd future blog about the release of NERD's Seeing Sounds,

which included, quote, If I ever met one of these dudes, I know for sure I will shed a tear, then pass out. Most of you are like, they're just normal people, but nah, they have been my father figure since I was 10, unquote. While Farrell appears on Igor's final track in the Patriarch role, it's clear that Ye is a similar father figure for Tyler, and thus at this critical moment in Igor,

when Tyler's lost his way and is looking for guidance, Ye appears, rapping, you lost son, and you've been trying to find your way to me. The idea of being lost 50 albums travel motif well, and in this specific moment, Tyler is looking for directions, where to navigate next. It also works with the other prominent motif of running, in that Tyler has lost the guy to the girl, the guy didn't vote Igor. There's even an added layer with the hindsight of a few years and another Tyler album, as this concept of loss became central to his next album, Call Me If You Get Lost. It's here that Tyler uses his own freedom and accomplishments as a means of showing the path for others. has become the guide, the one we call when we need directions. On Igor, it's Yeh who Tyler calls

when he gets lost, and his verse is thus positioned as sage advice. In this way, we can almost look at Ye as Jiminy Cricket, who represents the wooden puppet Pinocchio's conscious in the famous Disney story. In any case, Yee continues his verse, which seems to be a partial freestyle or stream of consciousness, as the next lines are a little fuzzy. He says either, A to me, he's on something that I hate to see, or A to B ain't something that I hate to see. Either way, it seems Ye is commenting on the relationship Tyler's pursuing, as he disapproves of Tyler's dependency, miscommunication, and the back and forth all over the place traveling.

A journey for those two has been anything but an A to B path. Yey's next intelligible line is, Run-a-thon, I just stop and I'm going to take a breather. Run-athon indicates a marathon, continuing the focus on the journey metaphor, our lives as a marathon. It evokes the common sayings, it's a marathon. marathon, not a sprint, which is typically said when trying to illuminate that whatever's happening in this specific moment isn't the final result. That momentary failure doesn't mean that you've lost

entirely, that one needs to pace themselves rather than expending all energy in this particular moment. It's perhaps exactly what Tyler needs to hear right now, engulfed as he is in the aftermath of losing the race for his crush's heart, emotionally exhausted. Yey's advice is to follow his lead, to just stop and take a breather, take a breath. After this point, his verse becomes increasingly unintelligible, with Tyler's high-pitched backing vocals filling in the gaps singing, Got Me by the String, a straightforward development of the puppet metaphor. He also ends this brief part by singing, O Lord, an ad limb that feels very appropriate in this moment, relating to the idea of looking beyond yourself and searching for guidance from patriarchal or prophetic figures.

In terms of Yeas' verse, it's clear that his delivery is in its compositional stage, or perhaps even a flow state. He's mumbling and finding words, melody and rhythm and. as he goes along. And this hazy nature led to Tyler's official transcript of the lyrics expressing a familiar sentiment. Instead of factual lyrics, Tyler wrote, quote, Kanye lyrics cannot be transcribed. Recall that Tyler did the same thing for Playboy Cardi's verse on Earthquake, stating, Cardi lyrics cannot be transcribed.

In our episode on Earthquake, we proposed the theory that Playboy Cardi was a symbolic character, his presence representing the album's love interest, the one in the car with Tyler. Earthquake is the second song on the album's first half, which is totally consumed by the ups and downs of Tyler in the sky's relationship, ultimately leading to him becoming lost. Meanwhile, Puppet is the second song on the album's second half, which will discover is all about Tyler regaining his autonomy, rediscovering himself and letting go.

And like Cardi represented what consumed the album's first half, Yeh's wisdom and symbolic role as Tyler's conscious represents what will consume the album's second half. The pairing of Cardi and Yeh even fits well into Tyler's first half, fear of abandonment we've discussed all season. A fear we suspect cuts at least two ways, both with this male love interest and in reference to Tyler's real-life absentee father. The parallel structures of Yeh and Cardi's verses contribute to this symbolic connection. Now, the unpullished nature of Yeh's verse led many to ask if puppet was even finished,

a question that Igor's mixing engineer, Neil Pogue, answered directly. One thing about Tyler didn't want to do the conventional way of making an album. He didn't want to verse one in chorus and verse two. And, you know, he wanted it to be an experience. And so I see the album as an abstract painting. So you can look at an abstract painting. You get all types of things out of it. Sometimes abstract paintings don't look finished.

But they are. So it's the eye of the beholder. But it was everything that's on that album is on purpose. and everything was finished because he didn't want it to be the traditional way of arranging a song. You know, that's what he felt. If it was one verse, that's what it was. If it broke into a singing part, that's what it was. It broke into an instrumental.

It was all meant to be. It's how he felt. As Polk describes, everything on this album is intentional. was created with purpose, and the feelings came out the way they did, naturally, as simple as taking a breath. As Puppet continues, we expect the song to shift into its second chorus, but the chorus actually never gets repeated. Instead, Tyler unexpectedly drops into a new musical section, the foundation for which is a new sample. This time it's the intro for part-time's 2018 track, It's All Right with Me. Tyler pitches this sample down six semitones to get what we hear on Puppet.

Now, one of the interesting things about this sample is its baseline, which is a three-note descending line. Recall that the other sample on Puppet, Zara's 1970 song, Today, also featured a three-note descending baseline. This similarity in baseline is a large part of why these two samples work so well together, despite being made nearly 40 years apart. Tyler had to not only find these samples, but also have the ear to recognize his similarity. It's actually a pretty incredible musical match. But interestingly, Tyler chose not to pitch the samples into the same. same key signature. The baseline that comes from the Tsar sample is A, A, A, flat, G. While the part-time samples baseline is pitched a half step lower, A-flat, G, flat,

this is interesting because Tyler pitched down the original sample quite a bit, which means he could have easily matched the two baselines to play the same notes, in the same key. We can infer then that the difference was intentional, and the end result is that the song modulates, which is what it's called when a song changes key signatures. Specifically, it's what's called a half-step modulation, where the difference between the two keys are a half-step apart, the smallest interval there is between two notes. Half-step modulations are pretty common in the pop world. One of the most famous examples comes in Michael Jackson's Man in the Mirror, due to the fact that the key change occurs exactly when the word changes sun. This half-step modulation moves up, from G to G-sharp.

Most half-step modulations are this upward kind, used to give a song a sudden lift and burst of energy like you just heard. Half-step modulations downward are much more rare, because just like we associate going higher with increased energy and momentum, we associate going downward with decreased energy and momentum, things collapsing or sinking. Perhaps the most famous example of a downward half-step modulation occurs in the Halloween theme, where the modulation is used to create a dark, sinister feeling, as if the walls are closing in. Modulation, Modulation. Now, the half-step modulation that occurs on Puppet is the rare downward kind, brilliantly reflective of Tyler's emotional descent as he slips away from himself,

falling deeper into a well of dejection. Now there's one more thing about this sample that we have to talk about, and that's the lyrical content of the original song, It's All Right With Me by part-time. Just as the Tsar song lyrics about being a loser that can't win felt like a fitting reflection of Tyler's loss in this moment, It's All Right with Me seems to clearly reflect Tyler's current mindset on Puppet. The lyrics here are,

There may come a day when we both may disagree. You can go your way. I'll go mine respectfully. The track then continues, because baby, I just want you to be free to be all the things you'd want to be. It's all right with me.

Should you run away and decide it's not what you want, I'll be by your side to give you everything I got because baby, I just want you to be free. This kind of selflessness, where you give everything you have and prioritize your beloved's needs and freedoms at the expense of your own,

mirrors exactly the sentiments of Tyler's second verse and his role as puppet. There's also the parallel that It's Alright with Me is a breakup song, sampled here at the moment of breakup in the Igor narrative. Now over this new musical material, Yee reappears repeating the command, Breathe on a song. Of all his lyrics, these are the most intelligible, and they're repeated for emphasis.

It's clear this is the message, the wisdom the symbolic father wishes to impart on his son in this critical moment. This formally articulates Igor's breathing motif, that we've tracked all season. Tied to the physical effort required to run, to give it everything you can, we heard actual physical breaths on Igor's theme, I Think, Running Out of Time, and New Magic Wand. Now here on puppet, this sonic motif is solidified as a critical, thematic motif. With Tyler's loss of self, transformed into a symbolic puppet as a result of this relationship, it again recalls the story of Pinocchio, the wooden puppet who wishes to become a real boy,

with the breath being a central part of that human transformation. It also recalls the concept of drowning and this love taking Tyler to the deep end, which he sung about back on running out of time, foreshadowing the emotional danger of this relationship is putting him in. CPR and mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, also known as rescue breaths, are used to aid drowning victims to clear their lungs so they can breathe. It's no surprise then that Tyler directly related the breasts on the album to being human, as he tweeted shortly after the album's release, quote,

The Breathing is a little detail I implemented on the whole album, makes it human, unquote. These analogies from Pinocchio to drowning help us understand more about Ye's role here at this critical point in the narrative. Tyler has literally disappeared from the song, and Yee is attempting to resurrect or resuscitate him, telling him to find his breath,

his humanity, his freedom to live. Beyond Ye being an artistic father figure in his life, it's possible Tyler chose Ye to play this role in puppet because of Ye's own experience feeling like a puppet. The final song on his 2008 album, 808's in Heartbreak, is called Pinocchio story, where Ye laments about having fame and wealth and accolades, yet he's lost in the aftermath of a breakup, unable to figure out real love. He continues the song honing in on the Pinocchio analogy, singing,

I just want to be a real boy, and later I turn on the TV and see me and see nothing. What does it feel like to live real life, to be real? The pursuit of what he thought he loved, fame and wealth, left him lost in the aftermath of losing love, and it was only after losing this love that he realized just how severely he had lost himself. Notably, the song ends with Yeh bringing back the wise man archetype of the song's beginning, this time saying, wise man say, you'll find your way. At this point your way, The wise man says,

You'll find your way, Your Way, At this point, the similarities between Pinocchio Story and puppet become glaring. Ye is lamenting about feeling lost, not feeling real, like a puppet, just like Tyler. Ye sings of a wise man who offers guidance at this critical moment, just like Yee symbolizes on puppet. Then there's the fact that Pinocchio story was a freestyle, an unscripted stream of consciousness, like Ye's verse,

on Puppet. Aidaway's and Heartbreak was even an album which Yeh, a rapper, pivoted primarily to singing, just like Tyler's pivot on Igor. With this considered, it makes even more sense that Tyler would choose Yeh in this symbolic sage-like role on Puppet, having gone through a similar experience and could therefore share what he learned. Now, as we turn to the final moments of Puppet, I want you to pay attention to the female vocalist Santa Gold and Jesse Wilson's melodies.

They mostly sing the fiddler La La La, which is sung with a three-note descending melody. This melody is in line with the rest of puppet, which as we observed is primarily built on downward musical movement. There's the three-note descending ostinado, the chromatic descending bass lines, and even the descending half-step modulation we talked about. But every fourth measure, the female vocalist sing, cut me loose, as in cut the puppet strings. Notably, in contrast with all the puppet's dissension, which we intuitively relate to emotions of melancholy and defeat, This command, Cut Me Loose, is sung with a rising, ascending melody. This rare rising melody feels like a perfect representation of the effort to break free from the puppet strings,

to regain his autonomy, to fight against these strong emotional currents pulling him under. The immediacy of these needs are felt in the song's outro, as we hear a synth mimicking what sounds like an ambulance siren, evoking emergency and the need for help, reinforcing Tyler's disappearance and the themes of drowning and breathing. Conclusions. Representing Tyler's rock-bottom moment in the album's narrative, Puppet shines in its honest portrayal of the emotional danger that can arise when love and infatuation go awry. When Aswat's song was the emotional core of the album, Tyler said it was Puppet, noting its honesty and likening his mindset to a kind of addiction.

I think Puppet is fucking heavy. That's dark, like that first verse is like, Jesus Christ, you get a hold of yourself. Well, there's some abandonment issues on this record if you go on the lyrics alone. Definitely. And I think a friend told me like, oh, that first verse for puppet could also be about someone having drug withdrawals. Just being just completely honest. Like, what... That's really intense. And that's like, that shows a super, super high level of self-awareness to the point where it's almost detrimental to your own well-being. No, yeah. And even being aware of it and then like still like, that's why that verse is crazy because it's like I'm clearly aware that I'm, but I'm just a complete, like, that, and I think that even being in the middle, kind of in the middle of the album is what

bridges everything together. As Tyler himself notes here, puppet bridges the album together, which we can clearly see from a narrative perspective. Tyler's goal throughout the first half of Igor was to win the race for his crush's heart, and we saw him pursue that goal in songs like Earthquake, I Think, Running Out of Time, New Magic Wand, A Boy is a Gun, and even the first half of Puppet. But it's at the end of Puppet's second verse that Tyler finally realized, what this particular pursuit of another has cost him, his identity.

In our observation of this loss lies a lesson, revealing the ways in which love is both selfish and selfless. We pursue love in the company of another because it fulfills us in ways nothing else can. There's a kind of warmth unique to companionship. It reveals an array of colors otherwise unseen. And in our selfish pursuit of love in all that it provides us, we must be selfless. We must sacrifice parts of ourselves in order to make room for another. Is this harmony of mutual selfishness and selflessness that allows for the lilting shared breath

of reciprocity, the delicate dance of give and take that allows for sustainability in a relationship? What Tyler has experienced and is now realizing is what happens when this fragile balance is disrupted or never realized, when the scales tip too far in one direction, when one person exponentially gives more than they receive, when your entire identity becomes consumed and pleasing another, when selflessness becomes a literal loss of self. After articulating this revelation to himself and with Yeh's guidance, Tyler's new goal is now crystallized. He needs to fight for his freedom.

He needs to fight for his life. Tyler needs to cut himself loose and breathe again. What he needs is Igor. But at some point, you come to your senses. Of course, this is Igor's next song, What's Good, a track in which Tyler will find his breath both literally and figuratively. A track will unpack note by note, line by line, next time on Dysect. This episode of Dysect was written by Camden Ostrander and me.

If you enjoyed today's episode, please tell a friend about the show or share on social media and tag at Dysect Podcast. It really helps. Limited season 10 merchandise can be purchased at Dicekpodcast.com. Audio editing by Kevin Pooler, song recreations by Andrew Atwood, theme music by Bureaucratic. All right, thanks everyone. Talk to you next week.