The US R&B outlier’s viral summer anthem Nasty is the standout track on a generally more muted genre-blending album
TikTok remains a predictably unpredictable cultural randomiser. The latest career beneficiary of its supercharger fairy dust is US R&B singer Tinashe – more than a decade in the game – whose recent track Nasty went viral when a fan paired it with a reel of a bespectacled British man hip-swivelling to soca. There’s a whiff of vindication here. In 2019, the genre-straddling but unhappy singer left her major label after a protracted battle to release 2018’s Joyride. (Tinashe’s last albums have been independently or self-released.)
Quantum Baby’s title chimes with the unpredictable nature of both subatomic particles and social media blessings. Its contents, though, are pretty reliable, if a little lower-key than its standout, Nasty, advertises. Like its predecessor, BB/Ang3l (2023, seven tracks), Quantum Baby is short (eight tracks) and simultaneously playful, featherlight and nagging, a fusion of 90s signifiers with modern-era trap beats and silvery production choices.