Rolling Stone reports that Tinashe is one week away from releasing Popstar, her eighth studio album, and she is fully aware of the attention surrounding it. She says there is a lot of talk about it and that people are ready for it, calling it a fresh experience for her.
The Cover That Sparked the Talk
Her face fills the cover of the album, with stars forming a ring inside her eyes as she gazes ahead in a trance-like state. Headphones sit upon her head in the image, appropriate for an album designed to be listened to intentionally rather than passively. A user on X advised her to opt for one of the promotional pictures instead, specifically the one of her perched on the edge of a building with the U.S. Bank Tower in Los Angeles visible behind her.
She responded with a single word: “Not every creative choice is as simple as ‘oh this picture is pretty,'”.
Why She Chose the Cover
The cover was chosen with the goal of sparking conversation, Tinashe says. It draws the eye, but looking into her eyes for too long becomes almost unsettling. She notes that it is not what you would expect from the flashiest, most pop-star-esque visual.
“That is, to me, the key, because it makes me think there’s more to the story,” she says.
She also pushes back on the idea that artists should chase the easiest win. “As a consumerist society, that’s really easy to be like, ‘This looks the best, this the flashiest, this could get your attention, this is the hit song, this is the soundbite, this is the TikTok clip that’s gonna go viral,'” she says. “To be a true artist, you have to be able to transcend that and push against that because once we are focused on that, it just narrows the creative process. We’re so much more layered than a thumbnail or a soundbite.”
Singles, Singles Everywhere
Tinashe has previewed Popstar with five singles already. “Pillow Fight” couldn’t be more distinct from “Crash Out,” which exists on an entirely separate spectrum than “Melatonin,” which shows a different dimension than “Too Easy” and “I’d Rather Be Alone.” “Crash Out” is a highlight among the batch, a percussive-heavy track about trying to maintain focus through a storm of questioning voices.
The album release holds 11 more tracks beyond what listeners have heard so far.
Fans Who Only Like One Song
After a person on X advised her to raise her level or stop being followed because they had only liked one song so far, Tinashe answered with cheerful defiance. “By all means,” she replied. “Please do not tune in.”
“It does feel like we’re in an era where people are a bit more averse to nuance and aren’t taking the time to really dig into why choices are made creatively,” she says. “It’s really important for artists to stick to their guns in that sense and not just put out things that are very easily palatable.”
Independence Since 2019
Since splitting from RCA Records in 2019, Tinashe has been working on her own. Her manager described the exit as “giving her back creative control” after five years and three albums. At points during that earlier stretch of her career, she was urged to make songs she did not feel attached to, and at other points creative disagreements stretched release schedules across several months.
| Album | Label | Year |
|---|---|---|
| Popstar | Independent | Now |
| Previous work | RCA Records | 2019 |
She is not taking feedback from the people demanding more.
The System She Wants to Change
“The conversation to me is bigger than just the fans, it’s bigger than the artist. It’s really the system that we’ve set up and how artists are allowed to thrive,” she says. “We make it very black and white, and we reduce it to something that can be so much more reductive than what an artist typically has to say in all the layers of something.”
She doesn’t have the answer to how to fix this problem. But she thinks it’s just continuing to be authentic and not feel like you have to limit yourself, or overly censor yourself in certain ways to fit in or appeal to a certain demographic.
The record gives Tinashe a level of confidence that keeps her from caring much when someone on X tells her to step up her game.
Source material: “Tinashe Is Feeling the Pressure. It’s Nothing ‘Popstar’ Can’t Handle,” Rolling Stone.
Get the Notebook.
The day's best stories and every fresh verdict, in plain English, in your inbox by seven. One email a day, no more.