[Album Review] Tinashe – “Aquarius”

Surprisingly Tinashe’s Album Aquarius ranks #19 on the Billboard 200’s selling 19,000 copies within the first week. It’s only $7.99 in stores and on iTunes so why not cop it.

For her debut album Tinashe introduces the different styles and sounds she can prevail. She steps away from the turn up vibe she had given in her summer jam 2 On featuring Schoolboy Q and blesses our souls with masterpieces. The 19 track album provides listeners with an ample amount of songs to explore her talented psyche. That’s the new melody of many R&B artists out now is angelic and contemporary, thanks to the sounds of other popular contemporary R&B singers Jhene Aiko and SZA. Tinashe is quite eerie but her flow of words remind you of Janet Jackson mixed with a more modern  R&B voice like Keri Hilson. Let’s just hope she continues to stay relevant a little longer than Keri Hilson.

Aquarius opens up with the self titled track “Aquarius” with a mysterious intro then drops the base warming us up to the soft winds of her voice. If you close your eyes and listen you might question whether it is Janet Jackson singing. Luring into “Bet” you are being forced into a whirlwind then getting seduced by the pantry-dropping track “Cold Sweat” which uses a sexy disguise to show her issues of facing pressure. She sort of reminds you of Keri Hilson by the bridge of the song while talk-singing. The track “How Many Times” Future’s verse and ad-libs made the song slightly more turned up than it should be. She whispers before leading us into scandalous inquiry of how long they’ll last all night. It’s absolutely difficult to make out what future is saying outside of his ad-lib but the two still had a smooth collaboration.

What’s most striking about the album are the interludes. Tinashe presents a bit of spoken word in her “What is There To Loose” piece questioning the empirical boundaries and reality of love. “Indigo Child” connects her free spirit to the universe and the “Calm” teases your eye drums with a starling 30 second instrumental over bearing the evening’s ocean waves. The last interlude “Deep in the Night” puts you in the era of classical renaissance music with a piano playing base.

The producers of “Aquarius” mixed much EDM and techno to match the liberating sound of Tinashe. These genres are easy to assist artists with invading other into their world. The beat of “Wildfire” stood out as being theatrically dramatic. The song goes from having an EDM flow to a more upbeat “Lion-king” tempo. She finales her album with a thunderous instrumental titled “The Storm.”

If you’ve just become a fan of Tinashe since this summer you should also check out her last three mixtapes . Let’s not forget she’s been in the entertainment industry acting on tv series Two in a Half Men and being apart of former girl group. Her mom is European and her dad is from Zimbabwe so in her music we can experience a mix of her culture beneath her smooth uncanny sound. Tinashe composed all her life experiences primarily her love cries in her home studio which is already taking on being one of the most phenomenal albums of the year.

Stay posted to see if her next leading single “Pretend” featuring “SchoolBoy Q” will have just as much buzz as their earlier hit single.

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