Tinashe - Aquarius (out October 7 2014)

No thread for her yet? Talked about a bit in the Rolling R&B threads. 3 excellent mix tapes in 2012-13. Acclaimed early-2014 single ("2 On"). Proper debut album out in October. Latest single is "Pretend," with A$AP Rocky:

https://soundcloud.com/tinashenow/tinashe-pretend-featuring-aap-rocky/

"Pretend" is just heavenly. Highest hopes for this album.

Yes, looking forward to this. Haven't checked out her tapes at all.

the last tape was pretty bad aside from "vulnerable" - which katy b later reworked into something more transcendent anyway.

this new song is awful

"now i admit that i was fucking with a kid" is a line that could've been rewritten imo

it reminds me of something specifically i can't put my finger on but more generally it's pretty superior morose rainy day r&b à la brandy's afrodisiac

The Rocky verse in particular is very De La Soul/Teenage Fanclub

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOmdg3epcic

that asap rocky song is still trash but this is dope http://www.thefader.com/2014/09/15/tinashe-feels-like-vegas

"It begs for a Wiz Khalifa guest verse"

lol foh Fader writers

aw I like that A$AP track

Yeah "Pretend" is great. Weird hearing Stargate become Noah "40" Shebib on this Vegas track tho

2 On > Pretend > Heaven or Las Vegas

They're all great though.

idh why j0rdan hates "pretend", i'd've thought it was totally in his wheelhouse

*idg

it's like R&B as written by linda perry -- i'm good

Heaven or Las Vegas

interesting slip

haha i was about to say

although it's easier to imagine Jhene Aiko singing "Heaven or Las Vegas"

Uhh, that was quite intentional.

Pretend is hot garbage

Also Matthew trammel is a good writer I don't think he nec. meant the wiz thing as a compliment

yeah as a neutral statement i agree w/ him

The song definitely needs something imo... there's a lot of space there it doesn't know how to fill

xps guess that was a lil too subtle for me, Herbie Handcock

meh these non-"2 on" songs are boring, not sure she will ever get interesting ime

Are y'all about to pull a Jessie Ware/Imagine It Was Us on this woman and constantly judge every new track by how it stacks up against the one song in her discography that was actually atypical of her usual sound?

feel like jessie ware's recent output has been judged against far more than "imagine it was us"

idk, i guess i'm still checking for tinashe. i cherrypicked some of her mixtape tracks & like a few of em. just not v excited for this album yet.

Jessie ware is dope, this is trash. easy

Are y'all about to pull a Jessie Ware/Imagine It Was Us on this woman and constantly judge every new track by how it stacks up against the one song in her discography that was actually atypical of her usual sound?

― Greer

it's a slow night

i'm with j0rdan that linda perry doing r&b sounds most unwelcome, but i don't really see what "pretend" has to do with that. just sounds in the lane of all the other songs this year aiming to sound a bit like deep brandy album cuts off afrodisiac

don't think either new one is a patch on "2 on" (obv) and i hope it's not all in this vein but they're def better than anything from her mixtape days, i could see them clicking into place in album context

The more I hear from this album the less sense I have of what it's trying to be. This is track 2 from the record, and its pacing and long, wonky guitar outro spit in the face of album sequencing best practices

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftB-DccfZkY

http://www.dazeddigital.com/music/article/22001/1/stream-tinashes-debut-album-aquarius

Awesome!

Stream doesn't work, blogs keep posting it anyway.

Content above all!

it's a pretty solid album

it feels very zeitgeisty in a contained way

that's vague

it feels zeitgeisty in that it tracks along post-drake, post-aaliyah is a goddess R&B but not like fka twigs or something where it's *all* about that

insofar as it's an album with inherent commercial motivations that still manages to sound 'hip' it feels perhaps even more idiosyncratic and considered than something like twigs where the aesthetic is really the meat of the album

not that the two need to be pitted against each other or anything -- i like the twigs album a lot too

could swap jhene aiko out w/ twigs and i think the argument still holds

I am very curious to hear this. does the stream not work for anyone? soundcloud told me it was because I was in the wrong country

Everything else on her soundcloud plays for me except the album stream.

About halfway through, and am enjoying this - Aquarius seems like a really suitable title, given the full on shiny, aquatic dub sonics and subsumptive dynamics. And, ah, pan-pipes.

Yeah, those pan-pipes...

Also about halfway through, also enjoying it.

it feels zeitgeisty in that it tracks along post-drake, post-aaliyah is a goddess R&B but not like fka twigs or something where it's *all* about that

what? the strength of the twigs album is that the pre-release narrative about that aesthetic is a gigantic red herring b/c it's not that relevant to the album, which feels like it's in another lineage entirely. it's got tinges of r&b about it but certainly not the real zeitgeisty sad-drake-r&b/glacial-aaliyah-vibes sort, and it's a v minor component anyway

How Many Times is amazing.

The stream I think is UK only but it worked for me using hola.

oh thank you, I recently moved to Canada from the US and have been meaning to figure out a good vpn

Man, I love the end of Bet, with the final thick chord, and then the guitar solo playing that little riff, which then becomes the bass-riff on Cold Sweat.

Half-expect Enya-sample from Ready or Not to drop at the start of Bet.

The best parts of this record recall Aaliyah's s/t slowjams.

It's crazy long tho, reminds me of Goldenheart that way - could have been a bit more concise.

"Small Reminders"!

I was feeling similar to forks, but I think it might be mostly that "Last Call" does not work for me at all. Everyone otm about "Shy Guy" though damn

Ok listening to Small Reminders in isolation was a good move, thanking u Alfred

Like "Shy Guy" and the title track "Small Reminders" is a Russian doll of a song. Wow.

The g-funk break is like its own Shy Guy, a deliriously tantalizing glimpse of a whole other project, but good lord yes what a wonderfully constructed song

It's like a mini-epic. You say Russian doll, I say fractals or palace of mirrors. Lyrics are pretty abstract too. Amazing bass work on the chorus, and that break comes from nowhere - sounds like something Kendrick Lamar would do ?

to forks's point, it would be the perfect album-ender

To clarify, I don't like "Let Me Down Slowly" "Pasadena" "It's a Wrap" or "The Chase" at all and "Bouncin 2" is utterly superfluous. I fucks with "Last Call" and "Small Reminders" but that's bad signal-to-noise ratio as opposed to side a.

i think "it's a wrap" is a little weak and agree "bouncin' pt. 2" is superfluous but the rest are great

I don't know about you but I'm still playing the shit out of this album. I've had I can see the future - X - Bouncin - Undo - Pasadena - Small Reminders on heavy rotation. Going back to the album there is also Angels and, even if it does not really belong with the rest, The Chase. I'm amazed at the economy of means and vocal performance. I could push this to a ten.

Close to becoming my album of the year.

"Let Go" is so fucking pretty

also the beat in "The Chase" reminds me of this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDJrIz2LSXs

Is this the best tinashe album?

it's not Aquarius.

has anyone caught her live on this tour? thinking about going when she comes through.

Is this the best tinashe album?

― xheugy eddy (D-40)

hell yeah

yeah for sure

xps Would go. Stream a few weeks ago from Made in America fest was great. And since I don't think this has been posted...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YftUS04Wi38

it's not Aquarius.

― braised cod, Thursday, September 23, 2021 4:31 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

aquarius is not that good

2 on is classic ofc

bated breath is the best one on there

you guys are crazy

?

what needs clarification? lol. aquarius is the better album

good morning!

yea, i disagree. aquarius is super uneven at best. i liked like two songs and 'all hands on deck' is like...half good half dead eyed

dare i say that i think aquarius is her third best...

songs for you is better too

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EsiimlAP6E

went back and listened to this today to see if it was as good as i remember thinking at the time and i ended up thinking now that it held up even better than i expected it would. i guess because i like the rest of the world have been so cold on all the music she's put out since this, i was doubting whether this album was actually worth remembering or just seemed like it at the time. but there's just tons of great songs... there's a stretch in the middle that feels a little dated to me (how many times, pretend & all hands on deck... so many chintzy synths) but otherwise great songwriting and production throughout. aquarius, bet, cold sweat, 2 on, far side of the moon, feels like vegas, thug cry, bated breath, wildfire... all these ones sound as good to me now as ever.

― J0rdan S., Monday, February 19, 2018 10:57 PM (three years ago)

i still agree w/ this

couldn't choose between songs for you and 333 but both are even better than aquarius

i might just give the edge to songs for you for not falling off in the last few tracks like 333 though idk

the idea that there are two tinashe albums better than aquarius.... am i living in the truman show

i never liked her music (outside of 2 on) until recently so

i'm going to put "feels like vegas" on to cleanse myself of this conversation. god save roscoe dash

i will say that the new cover of aquarius that she randomly put on streaming services is a travesty, if that is clouding the collective vision of this thread i understand

i don't think aquarius being only her third best is a particularly out there opinion, when songs for you came out there was a lot of "wow is this even better than aquarius?" discussion and then again with 333 vs songs for you

i think we can agree she's really something

I'm sure it's been said but this feels like two albums. I prefer the Dawn-esque sleek, modern R&B on Side A (especially "I Can See the Future," "X" and "Bouncin") to the dancier/poppier Side B, though "Undo" and "Small Reminders" stood out after the mid point.

I basically need to revisit her entire discography song by song to know for sure, but in the moment, 333 is her best album. The last time I had this immediate reaction was... In Case We Die. I never stopped listening, but found her albums uneven.

I've come to the grand conclusion that those four albums are about equal and consistent (In Case We Die, Aquarius, Songs for you, 333). More importantly, I'm finding loads of songs I had overlooked. Die a little bit, Life's too short, Bet, Touch & Go, So Much Better.

Has anyone seen her on this tour? It feels like watching a stadium show crammed into a tiny 1000-capacity standing room venue, it's really incredible. She's an insanely talented performer.

New single at midnight called Naturally

deluxe edition of 333 is out 3/3 with 4 new tracks

³³³ DELUXE drops 3•3

Pre-order: https://t.co/x4U32otOmj pic.twitter.com/6qntfqW0xW

— TINASHE ³³³ (@Tinashe) February 10, 2022

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KI-IiIt-xpg

“Naturally” is pretty nice

cool song, weird video

<3

Oh my god, SHUT UP

— TINASHE ³³³ (@Tinashe) March 8, 2022

I SPENT FIFTY FIVE ON A FILL UP!

lol

Pretty addicted to Naturally right now

weird video
― rob, Monday, February 14, 2022 8:48 PM (three months ago) bookmarkflaglink

She's just feeding her sheep and having a bath, wool is natural ok, and err... the body has "known" her ? Tinashe is pretty sharp