What I think.
Popstar ended up being a much better album than I expected, especially because I honestly wasn’t that impressed by most of the singles. They were not terrible, but they also didn’t make me particularly excited for the album, and Melatonin especially just never really worked for me. So I went into Popstar with slightly lower expectations, and I’m actually really happy that the full project changed my mind quite a bit.
The album tracks are where Popstar really starts to become interesting for me. There are so many better moments here than what I personally got from the rollout, and I think the album shows Tinashe’s strengths much better as a whole. Songs like Empty Stadium, I’d Rather Be Alone, Nobody Wanna Dance Anymore and especially Cloud 9 immediately gave me much more of what I wanted from this project.
I also really like the production throughout the album. There is a lot happening without everything becoming completely disconnected, and Tinashe moves between R&B, electronic and more straightforward pop sounds really naturally. Some songs are softer, some are much more energetic, and others are a little stranger, but most of them still make sense together. It feels like she understands her own sound enough to experiment with it without losing herself.
At the same time, I don’t think everything here is equally strong. There are definitely songs that I would put much lower than the highlights, and honestly, I prefer that. Popstar is not an album where I think every single track is incredible. Melatonin is actually one of my least favorites, despite apparently being one of the songs people are loving the most, and there are a few other moments that I find just okay. But the stronger songs are genuinely really good.
The length of some tracks also bothers me a little. There are songs with interesting ideas that end before they really have the chance to become something bigger, and with 16 tracks on the album, I think some of that time could have been distributed differently. I would rather have a few songs developed a little more than have so many ideas come and go this quickly.
Still, one thing I really appreciate about Popstar is that an album with this title could have been extremely generic. Tinashe could have gone for the easiest possible version of a big pop record, especially after having songs that reached a much wider audience, but that is not really what happened. There is still a lot of Tinashe here. Even when she is making something accessible, the production usually has enough personality to keep it from feeling completely safe.
And I think listening to the entire album also made me understand the singles a little better. I still don’t suddenly love them, and Melatonin is definitely not becoming one of my favorites just because I heard it in context, but they make more sense as pieces of this project than they did individually. The problem for me is that they didn’t represent the best of what the album had to offer.
Popstar is not completely consistent, but I think that is very different from being a weak album. There are songs here that I will probably come back to a lot, some that I like without loving, and a few that I could easily live without. That difference in quality is noticeable, but it also makes the highlights stand out much more.
Overall, I’m really happy that I gave the album a chance beyond the singles. I went into Popstar thinking this might be a Tinashe project that simply wasn’t going to connect with me that much, and I came out liking a pretty big part of it. It has some excellent songs, really good production and enough personality to feel like a proper Tinashe album. The rollout just made me expect considerably less than what was actually waiting on the album.