Let's Go On A Little Joyride ★✩✮ The Tinashe Discography Rate - THE WINNER IS...

My money is on Black Water.


























I don't know how to feel about her working with Diplo and Mike Will Made It. The former looks way past his artistic peak, the latter (although a brilliant producer) hasn't really brought the best in her the first few times around. Reality is, I'm happiest in her recording stuff. Scrap Flame's sessions entirely and pick up again where Nightride left us.






















#66
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Avg: 6.931
Highest
: 9.5x1 (@ohdenny)

Lowest: 4x1 (@Kuhleezi)

My Vote: 4

Worth It (feat. Iamsu) for: “Let me feng shui your shit”


I love dropping hints!


This Mike WiLL Made It produced track off Aquarius is definitely not one of the most popular from Tinashe’s debut album, and it’s easy to see why. Being placed at #14 in the tracklist and not bringing anything fresh or exciting to the project, it sort of fades into the background. It’s not offensively bad (very few Tinashe songs are), but it’s just unforgivably bland, the production is not that coherent with the general sound of Aquarius and not that great in the first place, and Tinashe’s performance is nothing to write home about.


At least it follows the path of anti-patriarchy this rate is happily veering into. As Tinashe herself states commenting on the chorus (“I can make a thug cry tonight”):
Tinashe said:
I have probably made a thug cry once or twice.

It’s a tongue-in-cheek way of being like ‘I am just a bad bitch,’ to the point where even the guy who thinks he is the hardest guy out here, I can proudly mess your head up if you give me the opportunity.

Queen.

This was met with a collective shrug, what more can you do really ¯\_(ツ)_/¯? constantino (6) is angry! “Grr I HATE the Mike Will Made It watermark/rip/whatever SO FUCKING MUCH” Calm down Beyoncé! “It reminds me of Bangerz-era Miley and that is NOT something I like to remember. So fuck this. The song is kinda meh and basic compared to what surrounds it so eh.” Can you become allergic to the word basic cause I think it’s happening to me right now. Asking for a friend. phily639 (7.5) stans for life. Not the song tho: “Easily the weakest song on the album but that's nothing to be ashamed of. Even perfection needs to stop and take a slight breather sometimes.”

 
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#66
FgHKMFg.jpg

Avg: 6.931
Highest
: 9.5x1 (@ohdenny)

Lowest: 4x1 (@Kuhleezi)

My Vote: 4

Worth It (feat. Iamsu) for: “Let me feng shui your shit”


I love dropping hints!


This Mike WiLL Made It produced track off Aquarius is definitely not one of the most popular from Tinashe’s debut album, and it’s easy to see why. Being placed at #14 in the tracklist and not bringing anything fresh or exciting to the project, it sort of fades into the background. It’s not offensively bad (very few Tinashe songs are), but it’s just unforgivably bland, the production is not that coherent with the general sound of Aquarius and not that great in the first place, and Tinashe’s performance is nothing to write home about.


At least it follows the path of anti-patriarchy this rate is happily veering into. As Tinashe herself states commenting on the chorus (“I can make a thug cry tonight”):


Queen.

This was met with a collective shrug, what more can you do really ¯\_(ツ)_/¯? constantino (6) is angry! “Grr I HATE the Mike Will Made It watermark/rip/whatever SO FUCKING MUCH” Calm down Beyoncé! “It reminds me of Bangerz-era Miley and that is NOT something I like to remember. So fuck this. The song is kinda meh and basic compared to what surrounds it so eh.” Can you become allergic to the word basic cause I think it’s happening to me right now. Asking for a friend. phily639 (7.5) stans for life. Not the song tho: “Easily the weakest song on the album but that's nothing to be ashamed of. Even perfection needs to stop and take a slight breather sometimes.”​

Wow! I figured this would stay a little longer. I don't mind it, like you said, but it's just there for me.
 
* First tie coming your way *





#64 (tie)

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Avg: 6.971
Highest
: 10x2 (@Touchofmyhand; @Serg.)

Lowest: 3x1 (@nikkysan)

My Vote: 8.5

Worth It (feat. Iamsu) for: “I’d give it all up for youuUUUUU I SWEAR!”


Another day, another elimination in the Randoms camp. But I don’t think anyone would have it any other way, judging by those averages.


Anyway, this song is the EDM counterpart to the kitschy pop of Drop That Kitty, in that both are an unusual group of people being featured in a song. This time around it’s Asian-American super group Far East Movement (of Like A G6 fame), DJ and future Whisper Queen collaborator Marshmello, and South-Korean idol Chanyeol from extremely popular band EXO. Me being the flop K-pop fan I am, I didn’t even notice this little detail. I’m so sorry my darlings @Slice of Life and @Alouder98, you are following along so loyally and this is how I repay you. Oh well, at least he’s not the member of a girl group. In that case, I’d have to sign my last will…


Back to something lighter, Freal Luv is outside of Tinashe’s typical style because there’s no sign of darkness here, not even a faint shadow in the distance. Lyrics are light, vocals are light, there’s no danger, there’s no mud, there’s no tension, which is why I didn’t like it at first. But then with time I conceded it’s indeed a bop. It doesn’t quite reach greatness levels though, and it’s all because it does without a big part of Tinashe’s artistry.


Y’all were not pleased by my formatting choices in the PMable list. The real kii is, “and others” didn’t come from a place of shadiness but just me being my usual lazy sloth self. phily582 (9) [editor’s note: I’ve noticed I’ve already messed up phily’s numbers in previous write-ups so from now on I’m just gonna give up altogether and put in random numbers] joins me in the cackling: “(Kii at "and others".) I will admit that I have been known to bop to and enjoy some Far East Movement songs and this is no exception. A total bop, but it would be significantly less so without Queenashe's presence.” Eh. I don’t think Tinashe is such a strong presence here to be a determining factor. Serg. (10) is livid: “You did not just categorize king Chanyeol as 'others'. He's serving visuals in that Ariana style jacket, killer verse and elevating the song from a 8 to a 10, oh and Tinashe is cute here, claps for everyone involved.” Ok but mine is nothing compared to AshleyKerwin's (7): “Objectively, I don’t like EDM of the “it sounds like it can be in a roller coaster walkthrough video” but this sounds good despite what it has working against it (ie- the menfolk).” Tinashe - Freal Luv (with the menfolk). Scream. Our other 10, Touchofmyhand, is going to serve our closing comment: ''Popnashe goes off in this and makes this otherwise generic electronic song her own. A BOP'' Respectfully disagree with the former sentence but can’t deny the latter.

 
And the other half is...






#64 (tie)
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(I wasn't responsible for this mess it's the official cover I SWEAR)
Avg: 6.971
Highest
: 10x1 (@phily693)

Lowest: 3x1 (@TRAVVV)

My Vote: 9.5

Worth It (feat. Iamsu) for: *click click*


I know it’s stated in this very own site that you shouldn’t entertain the idea of “guilty pleasures” but… this is my Tinashe guilty pleasure. I’d hate for her to release something like this in 2017, but as a 2011 track it’s pretty good. Hell, it’s fucking fun-tastic! It bops all the way through, Tinashe OWNS every single second of it, and it has always a great replay value. Who cares if it’s not this grandiose alt-R&B moody opus, she’d go on and create them elsewhere. Let’s just enjoy Chainless for what it is: a straightforward piece of fun. I love how it’s chucked at the end of a pretty long mixtape that can feel a little heavy at times, as if it was a reward for us sticking around until the very end. It kind of reminds me of how Triumph Of A Heart is the bopfest closer to a not-so-bopfest Medulla.


Will I actually manage to mention all my faves by the time this rate ends?
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Of course you’d abuse the b-word for this. OF COURSE. lemonsqueezyy (5): “There’s a bop in there somewhere but it’s incredibly basic.” and Andy French (7.5): “A true basic bop.” are our culprits this time around. You two, learn from constantino (8): “Way to go out with a bang...this knocks!” I know I can always count on you.


TRAVVV (3) is here for the character development: “If you ever want to see how far we’ve come as SweeTees, watch this video. The 40 scenes kill me.” Rumour has it the girl she’s singing about in I’m Selfish is the one from this video. But I like to think that song is about former the Stunners groupmate Hayley Kiyoko. Because I’m definitely that kind of person. But let’s not get carried away. nikkysan (5) isn’t that impressed either: “This is listed as a bonus track from the DatPiff track listing, and I can see why. It feels tacked on. A bit of a bop, but not something that's particularly special in Tinashe's discography.” Is there actually a thing as bonus tracks on mixtapes? Wouldn’t it be… pointless, given you aren’t shelling out any additional coin for bonus content? Someone who’d definitely do that for this track is our highest scorer, phily394 (10): “I am LIVING for the sass, the attitude, and the ferocity of this. This is a true highlight of her career pre-Aquarius. The production is as brash and goes as hard as it needs to, further accentuating the "I'm on like a muthafucka", she just seems so badass and cool. Easily, one of my favourites!” You’re not alone babe!

 
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As we step outside Bottom 10 we also get past 7 average.





#63
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Avg: 7.029
Highest
: 10x2 (@WarmBlood11; @Andy French)

Lowest: 4x1 (@phily693)

My Vote: 6

Worth It (feat. Iamsu) for: The spectacular intro


In which Tinashe is hustling to take that hard-earned coin home, only for it to end up straight into the State treasury. Maybe it’s a bit EUhunty of me, maybe I’m not the biggest expert in contemporary American socio-economics, but girl, you really complain about an average 13.5% tax rate? What about 23-43% like over here? (before anyone comes for me I know there are a million different aspects to put into the equation, but alas, a reasoned discourse on welfare state among the Western world nations isn’t as catchy as a completely unnecessary Transatlantic feud)


As far as its sound, this borderline tax evasion anthem was co-produced with duo Nez & Rio, frequent collaborators of the ScHoolboy Q (of money money money weed fashion fame), who were also involved in producing Slow on the same mixtape. Admittedly, the production is the best thing here: that opening is to die for, unfortunately it’s all downhill from there. The song is not that interesting to grab your attention until the very end, and inevitably drags by the middle point. I must admit it, it’s a bit of a slog.


Fun fact nobody picked up: this song samples Circus deep track Blur. I’m not surprised, I can’t really locate the sample in Tinashe’s track either. Anyway, she must really love this track as she had already used it before… But the time to talk about that has yet to come.


Who wants to break the bad news to lemonsqueezyy (9)? “Bound to be one of the highest-rated pre-Aquarius tracks in the rate and for good reason.” Maybe Touchofmyhand (6.5), given his insensitive indifference towards Tinashe’s economical struggles: “''This is...okay”. C’mon shit services-to-taxes ratio let’s get SICK’NING!


constantino (8) thinks he’s slick: “RCA, unfortunately. I like the production, very ~quirky~.” You know what? I’m going to steal that for the title. Thank you. And while we're on the topic of robberies, here comes AshleyKerwin (6.5) to spill some tea: “A true pyramid scheme anthem.” Ok but don’t tell the police, she has bigger problems at hand right now.



 
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Just updated post #3 with all links to eliminations so far. I'm going to try and keep it as updated as possible.

This is the only elimination today. I noticed I already went through more than 1/7th of the material, so from now on I'm going to slow down a bit and keep it at 12/14 eliminations so that we're going to wrap it up around late September/early October.

Now I'll go off to listen to this divine bop and celebrate this first week of reveals.
 
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Another loss for the Random (After)Thoughts





#62
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Avg: 7.147
Highest: 9x2 (@Serg.; @lemonsqueezyy)

Lowest: 3x1 (@Kuhleezi)

My Vote: 3

Worth It (feat. Iamsu) for: the kinda unexpected production



I sure have been on the bottom quite a lot, haven’t I? Please no double-entendre jokes, it’d be so cruel to put the boot in my non-existent love life *sobs his way to the Relationships thread*



You know how in every rate, no matter how many times you listen to all the songs, there’s always that one you couldn’t tell how it goes if your life depended on it? Definitely not near the best of the crop, but also not the worst of the worst dumpsters from hell (that one you’ll never forget in a million years, coming back at you when you least expect it)? It may sound extremely messy coming from your rate host, but this is exactly that one song.



Like, I’ve just been listening to it non-stop for this write-up, and I’m still as clueless as half an hour ago. Not even staring at the lyrics in bewilderment helps. I couldn’t really give a much higher score to a song that fails so miserably at making a dent. Give me a spectacular misfire over a competent nothingy bop any day. Praising Flame like that, look what you just made me do GTA! To be fair to them, their work on the track is admirable in that it’s not at all what I’d envision when I think ‘late2016-early2017 one-off Tinashe feature for x’, but that alone isn’t enough to salvage a complete non-event of a track.



My opinion will prove quite unpopular but I 100% stand by it. After all, the fact the highest it received was a 9 speaks volumes on its inability to really make an impact. At best, it’s merely competent - but is that what music is really about? You were mostly too busy bopping along to care. nikkysan (7):Wow this actually is pretty nice. Those synths and percussion had me bopping in my seat when I went over this again.” phily404 (8.5): “This is the only song on this list I've never heard before and I'm surprised as it's very good and rather interesting. As always, an amazing middle 8!” Touchofmyhand (8): “one of the best from the collabs” nnnnnot when there are at least three that are objectively better (luckily two are still in). But Andy French (7.5) seems to agree: “Another one of her features that made sense.” Truth tea here: none of her side projects makes sense. Hell, none of her career makes sense at this point, and the sooner her and @RCA embrace the surrealism of the situation the better. Back to our commenters, we end with constantino (6), who uses my favorite word in the world. AGAIN. “This is...pretty basic? I mean, it’s fine and Tinashe is selling it, but the production is cheap and drowns out Tinashe’s talent.” Gotta love how I agree with you and at the same time I don’t.

 
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