Tinashe | POPSTAR Review

By Bea Willis

The title POPSTAR suggests a certain sound and energy, but Tinashe’s eighth album is most interesting when the machinery surrounding that expectation begins to change. Electronic textures are dense and fragmented, beats are pull from R&B, hip-hop, and dance music, and eventually much of that architecture can be heard as support for mood setting. What remains consistent is Tinashe’s recognizable timbre and the way she uses that voice as part of an arrangement and mood.

This is an album built to accommodate different production languages. POPSTAR closes the trilogy begun with BB/ANG3L and continued with Quantum Baby, and its sixteen tracks deliberately broaden the musical field. Tinashe has described the album as moving from confidence toward introspection, while also resisting the fragmentation of albums into isolated moments. The record’s production team similarly encourages variety: sessions involved collaborators including Ricky Reed, Zack Sekoff, and Travis Stewart, better known as Machinedrum, while Arca produced the opening “Sunglasses.”

POPSTAR contains stylistic variety. Does it flow with purpose and a story is what survives when its production language changes.

“Sunglasses” begins answering that. Synthesizers and percussion layer into the opening before a glitch-like production effect establishes a rhythmic vocabulary. A pause clears the space, and then the groove and Tinashe arrive together. Her initial delivery is breathy and sensual, closer to rhythmic speak-singing than a conventional melodic entrance. Soon the voice changes character. R&B articulation becomes more prominent, the timbre warms, and processing—reverb, delay, chorus-like coloration and pitch correction, places her inside the electronic environment and the style.

Arca’s production is sparse enough that these details carry the mood and establishes pacing. A repeating three-note vocal idea becomes important. Tinashe states it, vocal samples answer it, and the exchange becomes part of the rhythm. When she moves into falsetto, another color enters without requiring the production to establish an entirely new environment. The track consequently introduces one of POPSTAR‘s most useful organizing principles: Tinashe’s voice can function simultaneously as melody, rhythm, texture, and atmosphere.

“Empty Stadium” develops in a different silt as interest comes partly from rhythmic stratification. A quick drum pattern, floating synthesizer material, and the vocal line each seem to occupy their own rhythmic plane. Rather than competing for attention, the layers create space for one another. Tinashe sings at a slower rhythmic rate than the instrumental activity surrounding her, allowing the melody to remain legible against the busier backdrop.

A well-placed perfect-fifth leap briefly opens the vocal line and reveals the control behind a performance that can otherwise feel compressed. Later, stacked voices lead toward a release of rhythmic pressure, leaving spacious synthesizer textures before the groove returns. The production is not merely becoming louder and quieter. Density, pulse, and vocal placement are being rearranged to change the listener’s perception of time.

Contrast is central to the album. Tinashe has spoken about wanting collaborators to move beyond what they assumed she would want, while Machinedrum recalled that some of the stranger material in his library was precisely what attracted her. POPSTAR benefits from that instinct because its experiments generally retain a clear musical center. The productions may establish different environments, but Tinashe continually reorganizes herself within them.

“Crash Out” makes the mood darker. Produced with London producer Couros, the track surrounds her with a minor-key atmosphere in which the flattened-second inflection introduces a Phrygian color. Synths, beat, samples, and backing vocals reinforce that tension, but again the arrangement’s most interesting development occurs through the voice.

Backing vocals appear selectively rather than forming a constant cushion. As the song progresses, Tinashe begins occupying contrasting ranges and vocal characters, creating counterpoint between versions of herself. R&B embellishments become increasingly prominent, and the bend toward the flattened second sharpens the melodic tension. What initially seems like a production-driven mood therefore develops through vocal behavior. Tinashe’s singing moves within the atmosphere; helping construct it.

That makes “Heavy Weight” an essential endpoint. Tinashe deliberately closes the album by reducing the arrangement largely to guitar and voice, describing the decision as a final touch of nuance to the album’s concept. It also creates an unusually effective culmination of everything heard before it.

Without elaborate electronic production surrounding her, her melodic craft becomes much easier to isolate. A broken-chord acoustic-guitar figure supports a warm pop melody, while her diction becomes clearer and the melody expands through wider intervallic movement. Her vibrato changes speed according to the shape of the phrase rather than becoming a default vocal effect. An emotional glissando toward a high E marks the climax of the first major melodic section before the song moves into a more rhythmic contrasting passage.

When the principal melody returns, that high point is built to for the climax. The climax landing on the word “down” initiates a descending, legato R&B phrase that becomes another piece of melodic material for Tinashe to reshape through the ending. With fewer production elements available to generate movement, phrasing itself becomes arrangement.

That final song clarifies why the stylistic changes across POPSTAR can remain coherent. The answer is not a uniform production palette. It is not even a single vocal sound. Tinashe changes that sound too often for either explanation to be sufficient.

Instead, continuity comes from the way she uses her voice. Breathiness and R&B ornamentation can intensify a darker harmonic color, while vibrato, register, and interval shape can carry a song when almost everything else has been removed.

This also gives greater meaning to the album’s title. Tinashe has framed the pop star as a persona containing both glamour and the less comfortable consequences of visibility, and she has described POPSTAR as a journey that grows more introspective as it progresses. Musically, the record performs a comparable movement. Its identity initially appears inseparable from production, image, processing, and surface. By “Heavy Weight,” much of that surface has fallen away. What remains is the musician who was organizing it all along.

Artist: Tinashe

Album: POPSTAR

Label: Tinashe Music / Nice Life / Atlantic

Buy and Stream Links

Release Date: September 25, 2026

About the author

Bea Willis

Author

With an unwavering passion for music that began at the tender age of five, I embarked on a journey of self-expression through the piano, later expanding my repertoire to the guitar and the art of singing. As a seasoned performer in cozy coffee shops and harmonious choir ensembles, I've immersed myself in the diverse tapestry of musical genres, seeking to uncover the intricate qualities that strike a chord within our souls.

Beyond my personal experiences, my journalistic pursuits have led me to explore the stories and inspirations behind the melodies we hold dear. As a music journalist, I aim to delve into the heart of each composition, shedding light on the creative minds that have shaped the soundscape of our lives.

In my downtime, you can find me serenading my loyal canine companion with heartfelt tunes on the guitar or indulging in retail therapy to enhance my ever-growing wardrobe. Songwriting holds a special place in my heart, and I yearn for the day when I can share my creative talents with the world. Until then, my passion for uncovering the emotional power within music continues to drive my insightful reviews and analyses, as I journey through the rich landscape of melodies that move us.