Tinashe has long excelled as both an experimentalist and a technician. On Popstar, her newest album released today, September 25, she applies her dual superpowers of having a sharp ear for crafting evergreen pop melodies and her experimentalist production streak; This is essentially the album's overarching artistic thesis: Tinashe is a "popstar," but under her gaze, that label can mean just about anything.
On the new record, there are standard heaters like lead single "Crash Out," which flexes her cool-toned vocals and sticky musicality. And then there are the curve balls like "Melatonin," a vaguely ballroom-inflected sugar rush that sounds like a longer, more cut-and-dry pop song was chopped, screwed, and then sent running on a supersonic hyperdrive.
The whole album hopscotches between both experimental and pop modes, but its the songs where the latter impulse takes center stage that most stand out the most.
Her experimental impulse is most prominent on "Flashbacks" which opens with vocal chops reminiscent to Arca's alien textures. After the psychedelic intro, Tinashe moves into chanting lines over a somber piano loop. On their face, her lyrics should be a beckoning to party, but amid the saddened orchestration, they feel somewhat tragic. "My fault, think my panties gonna drop," she proclaims. "Nonstop, puttin' that cherry on top / Unannounced, runnin' butt naked 'round the house." The songs chorus, a glitched-out confession to having "freaky flashbacks" positions the erotic memories Tinashe refers to as a dreamy past. Drums, populated with surprising pots-and-pans textures, adds further strange sexiness to the track. As the song yawns on, a pitched up vocal repeats the word "bounce," adding to the sexy party atmosphere, even as that same sad piano loops.
There are no other pop stars I can imagine making a track like this. On it, I hear echoes of the stream-of-consciousness quality of Norwegian alt pop duo Smerz's music. I also hear, in its straightforward lyricism, elements of Charli xcx's recent towards vulnerable, personal transparency. And then there's the longstanding influence of Rihanna, with whom I've long thought Tinashe shared a musical DNA; both of them are able to craft songs that stay notched in your consciousness.
Ultimately, though, this song and Popstar prove Tinashe as a force unto herself. Over a decade since her breakout with 2014's Aquarius, she's entering a period in her career where she's proven her vision via consistent, critically lauded albums and a steady dribble of underground hits. She's been here, and is clearly here to stay in the conversation — so she might as well let her musical freak flag fly. "Flashbacks" is yet another reminder that when she proclaimed herself a "nasty girl" on 2014 hit "Nasty," she wasn't just referring to kink. She's a strange musician with a penchant for surprise. Is anyone going to match her freak? It's clear few of here pop peers would dare to try.
Tinashe by Hugo Comte
