Tinashe - Aquarius (out October 7 2014)

the answer may v well be "no, not at all" bcz I have extremely little exp w/ mixtapes

It is what it is

the sax solo at the end of "Worth It" is wonderful. Reminds me of the guitar freakout at the end of "Bet."

This mixtape is so good. Disagree that it's more of the same. Songs turned on their head so we get a look at their underside. Experiments perfect for album inbetweeners. Again the thing that makes it all work is Tinashe doing amazingly controlled gymnastics with her voice.

at first I thought this was a little blah (and some of the ad libs are real terrible), but I think the key is "Just the Way I Like You", which is awesome and genuinely weird. that fluttery broken-organ-key noise is super high in the mix, I assumed my mp3 was fucked up at first, love those drums too.

Yeah that's a great track

The Kool & The Gang sample (or recreation?) in "Wrong" is my favorite thing to hear around this time of year.

vocal gymnastics is right, damn girl

So, this might be her best release..? Album and all.

She's showing off on this tape in the best kind of way. Like how she opens Dreams Are Real all in whisper-n-b mode, then listen to how differently verse 1 and 2 are delivered - first one all high up in the air, 2nd down to earth, then down in the dirt, "I was on the ROAAad travlin', they can't FIiND me". Real TEXTURE here. I'm surprised, I take notice, while she's doing all these amazing things, playing with the beat a million ways even though the song would be solid delivered predictably, in one mode, she's serve and volleying, junk ball slicing for shits and giggles and even takes the time to sketch these compelling worlds. Makes you laugh at certain other artists occupying the same space being mentioned in the same breath.

Looking 4 It so good. At her funniest yet.
Popping, popping corn -looking for it
I be twerkin' alone - looking for it
On the phone - looking for it
"Where's bae? bae, bae"

The way she's skipping along to "Worth It" like some 2015 updated Cherish tune. The "I'm still in love with you" chorus on Wrong may be may favorite part of a 2015 song. Perfectly applied autotune. All these songs stand out enough to build a tape around them. She's casually throwing them out there. If this kind of playfulness can be transformed into an album it's a gamechanger.

This has sunk in!

not sure about Amethyst>Aquarius, but what really clicked for me listening again today is how different it is. mehsayers should give it another listen

this is nice on first listen.

YOU AIN'T TUPAC, BITCH

i definitely got the impression that it would grow into its own when i listened to it. but i'm still working thru Aquarius! like i'm almost done, but not quite. currently stuck on Wildfire.

It's true that this EP gets better over time. One of my favorite releases this year, and there's been a lot of great stuff coming out!

YOU AIN'T TUPAC, BITCH

― RAP GAME SHANI DAVIS (Raymond Cummings), Tuesday, March 24, 2015 11:53 AM (6 hours ago) Bookmark

Kenrick diss!

love the guitars on the last track, so loose

THE FUTURE's mINE!

I'm so focused, I'm focused, I'm so focused, I'm focused

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxUdFQ6N_OI

Song has grown on me as a single and after seeing it live.

rly hate it when i step in a thigh high puddle of paint before a video shoot

getting iggy on the remix and then paying her dust in the video :)

probably would've done the video w/ Iggy if the tour they were doing together hadn't been postponed i'm guessing

do you think Frank Sabotka ever danced like that in his shipping containers?

probably would've done the video w/ ziggy if he wasn't in jail i'm guessing

incredible video for an incredible song

probably would've done the video w/ ziggy if he wasn't in jail i'm guessing

― r|t|c, Tuesday, April 7, 2015 7:36 AM (3 hours ago) Bookmark

:D

that video is a little yuck tbh

for some reason i cant just love tinashe or any move she makes, it all feels very prescribed

nb this may be the era we're in

not saying i dislike her either, this song is dope obv

you boost tink tho don't you? who feels even more prescribed than tinashe ever did

i will love her enough for the both of us then

(i don't really stan for tinashe yet either, just the album, if that distinction makes sense; i tried harder w/the mixtape following the encomia upthread but i really felt no interest or emotion at any point during any of its plays)

How is that video yuck though? And what's so prescribed about her, exactly? She's hard to pin down but I'd say she's pretty singular, right down to "poppin corn / lookin for it."

As for Tink I really like her but I'm put off by her moralisms.

you boost tink tho don't you? who feels even more prescribed than tinashe ever did

― lex pretend, Wednesday, April 8, 2015 10:33 AM (29 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol. hardly. but then, i wrote about her back when her manager was a woman who managed like 9 other chicago artists (including videographers and DJs) who she'd all corral to go to various events, when Think was a shoestring budget artist before Timbaland had ever heard of her, so

http://www.thefader.com/2012/06/27/video-tink-fingers-up

*Tink

safari is a dumb browser trying to autocorrect my ilx posts back to chrome

How is that video yuck though?

the stripper moves are a huge turn-off personally

Really?

i'd love to know exactly why tink is so beloved of various hipster magazines - you know, the fader/fact/pitchfork etc crowd - who have rarely gone so hard to bat for any other r&b singer at her level

Tbh: same here. Her catalog is pretty weak IMO. That said, she has a following beyond that audience .... Like ppl "IRL" are attracted to her star qualities. I think she's charismatic and has the ability to be pretty major. The fact/fader crowd latching onto her does strike me as somewhat random bc mug of her material (imo fingers up and the Jeremih song excepted) is pretty insubstantial. But: I think she had lots of potential

Also, people are real into a timbo cosign, obv, and he didn't just cosign. He put all his chips on her, in a way he hasn't done in years

Bc MUCH of her material

HAS lots of potential

yeah apart from not discerning any star qualities (any more than idk nikkiya or kehlani or whomever) that's what confuses me too - i haven't thought any of her mixtapes have been statements of intent in either concept or execution. she raps and sings, is about all that makes her stand out to me? and all the boosting was happening pre-timbo!

i like "ratchet commandments" better than anything she did before and she has as much potential as anyone at that stage of their career, i just don't get the massively disproportionate boosterism from outlets who barely acknowledge most r&b singers

i think it's basically some riyl: Aaliyah bullshit, like her singing stuff was this amorphous atmospheric shit that just played well to the formal biases of fact/fader audiences. And it gained momentum bc people rightly imo see her potential

I think Tink's appeal is pretty obvious. She sings well, she raps well, she's engaging and charismatic. Even her lesser songs are really, really fun. I don't think the Aaliyah comparisons hold much weight; she carries her own sense of mischief.

"Don't Tell Nobody" was fantastic and "Ratchet Commandments" is really strong, too; I have a lot of hope that she'll continue hitting those highs.

She doesn't really sing well

"don't tell nobody" is the only song of hers that really struck me

i just can't shake the notion, at least right now, that a lot of writers really really want her to be famous without her having done much yet to get there

I think we all just want timbaland to be relevant again

I will argue that it's not just writers who like her though. She has a real world audience