Black Star by Amaarae

Ghanaian-American songstress Amaarae didn’t just emerge on the global music scene, she burst through like a jet of water with her sophomore album Fountain Baby. That album captured lightning in a bottle, an all-killer, no-filler package of intensely catchy pop and dance music unafraid to pull influences from around the world.

With such an amazing project under her belt already, I was waiting with bated breath to see if lightning would strike twice on her third album Black Star. Unfortunately, she’s left me feeling a bit let down, as Black Star lacks a lot of the creativity and fire of Fountain Baby, in favor of speed-addled pop and dance numbers, with brittle synths and bouncy dancehall beats framing her sinewy soprano.

Starting positive, “Kiss You Through The Phone Pt 2,” featuring PinkPantheress, serves up a plush, dreamy atmosphere cut with deep, dark dance beats. There’s so many catchy little hooks laced into this song, and Amaarae and PinkPantheress sound like long lost twins on this song. It’s highly entertaining hearing how their individual voices bounce off each other and combine with each other to tell this story of romance in the digital age.