One of the most surprising stories of 2024 in the music world has been the mainstreaming of some of popular music’s niche figures. Thanks to its catchy hooks, endlessly meme-able lyrics, and viral dance trend, Tinashe’s “Nasty” has placed her back on the pop charts for the first time in a decade. In the intervening years since her 2014 debut, Aquarius, Tinashe dived deeper into the ethereal bedroom R&B lane, and Quantum Baby, the follow-up to last year’s BB/Ang3l, continues on that trajectory.
The infectious “No Broke Boys,” an empowering earworm in the vein of TLC’s “No Scrubs,” comes close to matching the freak of “Nasty,” but these songs are outliers on Quantum Baby. More emblematic of the album’s sound, tracks like the woozy “Thirsty” and the slinky “When I Get You Alone” are draped in a lusty late-night haze that engulfs you more slowly. On the former, Tinashe coolly flips from one flow to another, seamlessly filling every available pocket in the beat, while the latter finds her weaving the arc of a situationship—from steamy beginning to cold, lonely ending—as the production transforms from luxurious to spaciously tropical.
Tracks like “Getting No Sleep” are effortlessly cool in their low-key presentation, but that “effortless” vibe can leave Quantum Baby feeling a bit under-developed, especially given its length. A quick and laidback 22 minutes, the album is over before you know it. It invites you into these private moments only to pull back before you’re fully immersed.
The opening track, “No Simulation,” is stacked with a quietly funky bassline and a hooky chorus—“We’re all looking for something/Where are we going?/What do we do?”—but it feels more like an intro that eases you into the album rather than a standalone track that takes you on a journey of its own. On an album of this length, that’s precious real estate.
In an era where the lines between albums, EPs, and mixtapes are increasingly blurred, the question of what makes a project feel complete is more subjective than ever. But Quantum Baby is part of a planned trilogy, and paired with the similarly succinct BB/Ang3l, the album starts to feel more substantial. For better or worse, the brevity and restraint of Quantum Baby leaves you begging for more.
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