Apt to mix the erotic and the romantic, a woman for whom an empty bed is an existential hostility, Tinashe Jorgensen Kachingwe is the Christine McVie of modern R&B.
The late Fleetwood Mac singer-songwriter, poet of the twilight hour, understood how the space between anticipation and fulfillment can fuck with the brain as much as it breaks a heart. Tinashe, however, is never caught on a hot mic; the performed insouciance she’s given us since the 2014 ScHoolboy Q collab “2 On” shows no signs of turning into a routine.
On Quantum Baby, released less than a year after BB/Ang3l, Tinashe presents eight crisply sung and programmed lessons in pre- and post-coital self-presentation; her seventh album is brief (22 minutes) but inhabited. Best-in-show “No Broke Boys” is a model of poise: “The ex is on the line / Just as I expected / No one ever gets over me,” she sings, and that’s just the first verse. A three-beat percussive punctuation disturbs the trap rhythm’s expected crackle.
Producers Nosaj Thing (Kendrick Lamar, Chance the Rapper) and Ricky Reed (Jason Derulo) specialize in these modest disruptions: the wobbly synth intro to “Red Flags” might’ve drifted in from a Kelela album. Meanwhile Tinashe’s talent for setting full sentences to music gets a workout on “Thirsty,” where a missed flight forces a change of plans.
An endurance runner in a chart marketplace resistant to female R&B singer-songwriters, Tinashe has quietly amassed an estimable catalog (2021’s 333 is one of the decade’s friskiest statements). She distributes her music independently. She keeps an eye on trends without succumbing to them. Add Quantum Baby to the winning streak.
“Is somebody gonna match my nasty?” she wonders on the first single. Well, maybe. But she’s already walking to the door. – GRADE: A-
