Experimental R&B triple-threat Tinashe’s Nightride was the unexpected follow up to 2014’s Aquarius, after prepping for what we thought was the release of her highly-anticipated new album Joyride.
We were all wrong, but it was oh so right.
I personally haven’t been too put off or affected by Tinashe’s “hiatus”, or the endless delays surrounding this follow-up LP, because to be honest I actually learned about her music crazy late. (Like just last year maybe?) So I’ve had more than enough of her older material to keep me interested between her 2 full-length releases.
For me, 2014’s Aquarius was future-R&B perfection and a friend of mine suggested I listen to Nightride immediately if I was a fan of that record’s sound. I’m not going to go into her life story but the reasons I appreciate Tinashe are because she can truly do it all, and doesn’t do anything half-assed when it comes to her live performances, energy, work ethic, or the quality of her music.
She is a TIRELESS performer and is one of the best dancers I’ve seen in A WHILE (skill level: FKA Twigs). And I love seeing a classically trained dancer do hip-hop choreography because it’s so technically sound and it comes off so clean. And she does this all while performing live vocals with a hand-held mic so don’t even get me started…
She continues to move from genre to genre and continuously keeps me entertained by always changing, evolving, and pushing her sound into another dimension. But at the same time it sounds like some of the best that we’ve heard before (Janet Jackson, Aaliyah, Mya, etc). Those are some of my favorite throwback R&B vocalists and dancers and Tinashe’s music has that nostalgic sound that takes reminds me of the past.
While I was never too keen on her radio releases (“2 On”, “All Hands On Deck”), I was a bit more drawn to her darker, more moodier visuals for songs like “Cold Sweat” and “Bet” (shown above).
My love for these types of tracks is why a friend of mine was like “you HAVE to listen to Nightride! TODAY!!” – to which I gladly obliged. I’d already had every intention of doing so, but I was like okay let me put aside about an hour or so to really hear this out.