Tinashe - Aquarius (out October 7 2014)

Yeah back to the great mixtape

Actual arguments > banal enthusiasms

This is why I pay ilx the big bucks

To get back on topic, Tinashe by contrast feels relatively blank, obv she's got some great songs and I f/w all hands on deck like everybody else but at some level it feels a little "if she didn't exist, a girl In a beanie and timberlands would have to create her"

― deej loaf (D-40), Thursday, April 9, 2015 11:36 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

in my house, i have earned the term "latebloomer." when Ryan first played Aquarius for me, i was like, no. i put her in an Amerie bucket for some reason, i could just never get into Amerie. and then i heard "2 On" on the radio, and the rest was history. her voice has SO much character. And obvs, All Hands on Deck is some of the sickest shit i've ever heard.

like i literally can't stop playing it and am worried about the sanctity of my friendships as a result.

How would you describe that character though?

hmm. she can go hard, she can go soft. she has personality. she has enunciation, and timing. she can go big, she can go small. she has pain in her voice, and she knows how to party. and she also has a zen Jhene Aiko thing working in her favor. lots of things in one package. i think that's what i would say for now.

yeah, I agree with all of those. If anything she's never just one thing and that makes her difficult to pin down (and perhaps sell) I guess.

Weird thing: In DK, 2 On never made it on the big radio channel (we pretty much only have one: public service P3) but Pretend was apparantly a pretty big hit. I like Pretend more than most on this board, but it's still weird.

i don't have problems with anything on the album except How Many Times. Future is just so awful on it. And she really didn't need to mess with Janet.

but xp that is weird

I love Future on How Many Times! What puts you off?

I don't mean to belabor this but you could tell she had something back when I first posted "fingers up" to fader.

lol

tell me I'm wrong though

I love Future on How Many Times! What puts you off?

― longneck, Thursday, April 9, 2015 4:49 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i dunno! i feel like he's just saying "tit" and "bitch" at the end? but maybe i'm just hearing it wrong lol...

xp like i'm saying way more than 'i have been otm in this thread' in that post

yes but

you really can't help yourself can you?

with what? the primary criticism in this thread is 'it makes no sense why people like her, it's fader/fact hype' & my point is that this phenomenon predates all that shit

is it not relevant that my interest predates that?

im just making fun of you for saying "you could tell she had something back when i first posted 'fingers up' to fader" instead of "you could already tell she had something by 'fingers up'" like a normal person

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9t02VH6MC0

@ surm lol i think it's actually worse than that, it's "fuck you like real dick / shit bitch, lick lick" which is all kinda gross but in the context of the song it just paints him as totally obsessed with the sex + wide eyed, going at it double time but still you know there's a connection there, he's immersed, they're in some kind of sync, unlike, say, schoolboy's horrid verse on 2 On where he just goes all out to be gross and idk impress her with it? Yuck. And she kinda comes out on top because she somehow isn't all greed, just reflective lust. So yeah he's gross but it still works for me.

taken en masse, all the male voices on Aquarius are so bad, it almost feels like a misandrist concept album

all the male voices on aquarius vs all the male voices on beyoncé

she likes being alone: reasons

lol. i don't mind the male voices on this but to respond:

@ surm lol i think it's actually worse than that, it's "fuck you like real dick / shit bitch, lick lick" which is all kinda gross but in the context of the song it just paints him as totally obsessed with the sex + wide eyed, going at it double time but still you know there's a connection there, he's immersed, they're in some kind of sync, unlike, say, schoolboy's horrid verse on 2 On where he just goes all out to be gross and idk impress her with it? Yuck. And she kinda comes out on top because she somehow isn't all greed, just reflective lust. So yeah he's gross but it still works for me.

― longneck, Thursday, April 9, 2015 5:31 PM (12 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

what's interesting about this is that apparently How Many Times is the only one that she actually did with the rapper in the studio; all others were emailed

but yeah, "shit bitch, lick lick" is the line that always throws me

xxp popping corn

o sorry that little factoid actually applies only to the singles

Who's doing the licking though? Might as well be him.

she likes being alone: reasons

― j., Thursday, April 9, 2015 12:41 PM (7 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

exactly. there's a line on Amethyst about seeing a guy and hoping he's not a rapper or a singer (though the internet is trying to tell me that she says "I really hope you're a rapper or a singer" which can't be right) because those dudes are only after one thing. Aquarius is like: here's a bunch of those dudes!

that said I like all three of these songs (agree with Frederik that Pretend is good), I just think it's funny how all the men live down to the expectations of some of the lyrics

she has talked about how it was *very* different for her to work with SO many people on this record

http://www.datpiff.com/Tinashe-Tinashe-Amethyst-Screwed-Slowed-Down-Mafia-mixtape.694609.html

gonna play this back and forth w/ my screwed-n-not-chopped sade mix aaaallll summer long

couldn't get into this album when I found out about it through EOY but put it on on Sunday morning and it was perfect.

that's essentially what happened to me too

i heard Bey or Rihanna coming out of a cigar bar last wknd, and ended up having the DJ put on All Hands on Deck and 2 On while I smoked my first cigar

it was fun

http://pitchfork.com/features/guest-lists/9636-tinashe/

Her tastes are pretty impeccable

I guess?

couldn't get into this album when I found out about it through EOY but put it on on Sunday morning and it was perfect.

For me it wasn't so much "couldn't get into it" as it got overwhelmed by a lot of other more immediate stuff I got in December/January (D'Angelo, Dawn Richard, Sleater-Kinney, etc). So I registered as "nice, worth more exploration," and I finally got back to it on a long drive over the weekend. Now can't stop playing it.

The album seems paced for maximum replay value, since it has a nice mix between immediate hits and songs that take a while to reveal themselves. It also helps that the hits never grow old.

awwww tinash

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6fW6daYM6A

<3

Enjoying 'On A Wave' despite there being some Drake on it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zl2picz7wm8

excited to hear ! my friend just texted me saying she just played "all hands on deck" for her husband -- i have converted her!

There seems to be a high level of retro-nostalgia for classic Aaliyah/Missy jams in Tinashe's music. Obviously that's not really surprising in itself, but the precision of her reenactment of it seems kinda unique to me.

eh as long as she's not sampling their classics in her songs and trying too hard to capitalize on the public goodwill for them (cough Tink cough) i'm fine with Tinashe taking inspiration from that era, her music sounds pretty of the moment to me.

she created a new moment 4 sure. love hearing Missy's name all over the place again tho

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRC3D1xmo-c

omg i don't think i realized how much legit magnetism and star quality she has

her Kimmel performance last year was crazy too. seems like most new pop/R&B stars think they can only get good as singing OR dancing onstage, it's refreshing to see someone kill at both.

shit i need to watch. i am so glad i finally stopped listening to this album though. like it is definitely forever a standby in my collection now, and i will revisit it soon but. i need a step back.