TINASHE - AQUARIUS : Music Review

We lost Aaliyah, may she rest in peace. I want to talk about Aaliyah first before I dive into Tinashe mainly because Aaliyah was such an immense talent. Her style of advertising herself was not too tacky but classy and sexy, she made classic sexy commercial. Her commercial did not end with her looks, she sang so well and Tinashe reminds me of Aaliyah in all the good ways!

Yes, Tinashe comes off as a bit "slutty" especially if you watch her interviews on YouTube. But it's all worth it when you listen to her debut album!!! Her R&B style vocal is bringing it! Her well calculated image does not come off as a gimmick at all. She has a lot of production work done under her belt, at a home studio where she produced her then promising mix tapes. However, Aquarius is a full length album distributed by RCA, as commercial and mainstream as it can get. A lot of questions come naturally, will it sell? Will it match the success of her US Top 40 single "2 ON"?

The most important question to me is "Does it deliver?". Yes and No. YES because of her spot on vocals and flirtatious, femme fetale, "you don't know shit about me" delivery. Also, the fact that her presence is strongly felt even when collaborating with big time producers like A$AP Rocky and Mike Will Made It, courtesy the project budget from RCA. There are not much misses but NO delivery happens for the lack of radio friendly tracks. Radio friendly sound is one of the ingredients of a No.1 single right? but anything can happen in this industry . So, in other words, Tinashe's Aquarius does not deliver in a way that there is no "Dr.Luke", "Take my to the chorus", radio friendly single.

Aquarius does have quality though, winking at the audience, flirting at you. Tinashe's career is promising to say the least!!! This '93 born R&B singer is selling it! Yaaaasss!!!!

Buy it on iTunes:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/aquarius/id911472229

Record You Must Check Out : "Rather Be" by Clean Bandit Feat Jess Glynne

If only India has a music scene as vibrant as the UK, it would be dear. That’s a huge thing to wish upon because in a land where Bollywood soundtracks dominate the charts or iTunes sales, people even forget that indie artists have sphere of existence in this world. I came across this song “Rather Be” by an indie band called Clean Bandit, before you judge me, this is not a ‘hipster for the sake of being hipster’ move, they’re actually quite popular and this single even peaked straight to No.1 at The Official Charts UK. 

I like it because the chorus is oh so infectious! Who can ignore those tunes? Jess Glynne's vocals glides on every note like a hot knife through butter. The arrangement is top notch, it stars with a violin intro then moves to pop music gem. By the sound of it, Clean Bandit’s sound is a little bit of old school strings (I heard a violin and a cello harmonizing) and a dash of EDM, just to the perfect amount, no more no less. So, if their music was to be told by the rules of Chemistry, they would be a compound of old and new; the exact right amount rather than a mixture where it’s mixed but borderlines “garage band improvising”. 

My biggest support goes out to the band because a) They make their own music videos and b) They produce their own music (hence indie) two factors that ring to my mind as “authentic” or “original”. Let’s see if future singles deliver or even exceeds “Rather Be” because all I can see are good things for this gem of a band.

Check Out The Video Below: 

Song Of The Day = "R U Crazy" By Conor Maynard

Conor Maynard, yes, you might think that he's a "Timberlake wannabe", he is kind of but at the same time not so. R U Crazy is great for a single off a "dreaded" second album. I mention "dreaded" because Conor Maynard set the bar so high with his first album Contrast. Now everyone's hoping for the 'next A grade pop music'. Co produced by Labrinth it deserves the tag of A grade pop music which Justin Timberlake does not perfect so dearly anymore with his current materials. Here's the tricky part; the bridge at 3:20 minutes sound like something off a Timberlake single then the notoriously catchy chorus kicks in again. The video is crisp and looks expensive too, proving yet again that Conor Maynard's music might be commercial but it's damn perfect! 

Watch the video below.