Amaarae: Black Star review – glamour, glitz and lust from a pop star who should be a supernova
Despite the ingenuity and complexity of her music, Amaarae has struggled to break into the mainstream, in the UK at least. A recent Glastonbury set felt sparsely attended and, aside from 2020's Sad Girlz Luv Money, one of the most enduring viral hits to emerge from TikTok into the real world, few of her singles have had crossover moments.
Hopefully that will change with Black Star, her sleek and hugely enjoyable third album. It requires a slight resetting of expectations. After the plainly radical Fountain Baby, perhaps Amaarae would become downright experimental, but Black Star makes it clear that she just wants to have fun. This is her take on a club record, weaving elements of house, trance and EDM into Afrobeats rhythms and spiky rap cadences. It's more straightforward than its predecessor, but that doesn't diminish its pleasure, derived in large part from Amaarae's relentless pursuit of just that: these songs exalt drinking, drug‑taking, rowdy sex and fine dressing in such a clarified, unapologetic way that they would elicit blushes even from the Weeknd, pop's reigning king of smut.
You can imagine Amaarae's bass-heavy but elegant music soundtracking a dark, exclusive superclub, a fitting mode for a musician who prioritises opulence and indulgence in her music. Starkilla, a collaboration with the London rapper Bree Runway, is a villainous-sounding house track the hook of which is simply 'ketamine, coke and molly' over and over again; the slick crush-object song B2B combines pulsating electro with the euphoric chug of South African amapiano. There is a remarkable amount of other dance styles explored here: high-speed dembow and baile funk animate Girlie-Pop!; there are elements of Detroit techno and gqom, another South African style, on SMO; and the opener, Stuck Up, features raucous club rap. Even if it's a more traditional record overall, her globalist attitude makes for sparky, cosmopolitan music.
The focus of Amaarae's lyrics hasn't changed significantly, although Black Star is a softer and more lovestruck album than its predecessor. On Kiss Me Thru the Phone Pt 2, a PinkPantheress-featuring sequel to the Soulja Boy original, Amaarae and PinkPantheress sing sweetly about 'yearning for you to the bone', their twinned helium voices sounding surprisingly great together. Fineshyt, the best song here, is a gentle trance track that captures the innate sense of melancholy in the much-maligned genre, Amaarae singing about wanting to try a real relationship with her object of affection. These songs provide a welcome counterpoint to the abrasive posturing of earlier ones, which have Amaarae and guests – including Naomi Campbell – mugging and boasting to admittedly great effect.
Campbell's appearance is eyebrow-raising: 'They call me a bitch, a villain, controversial diva – no, I am the black star,' she intones, which will probably inflame the many people still up in arms over Campbell's misdeeds, ranging from assault convictions to the alleged mismanagement of a charity (which she denies). But it's fitting for an album that is deliriously in love with wealth, celebrity and all the power it affords. There is a difference between Amaarae and all the other stars fixated on such topics: for her, glamour is a side quest and love is the motive. Shopping at Saks and being passed another blunt might be nice, Amaarae seems to say, but the real high comes from finding someone to share it with.
Wild Pink and Fenne Lily: Disintegrate – Edit
Wild Pink's John Ross is one of the best lyricists in indie music. The deluxe reissue of his fantastic Dulling the Horns promises plenty of great reinterpretations of his bizarro images, including this soft take on Disintegrate by the English folk singer Fenne Lily.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
20 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Hulk Hogan's daughter Brooke threatens legal action on his circle
Hulk Hogan 's daughter Brooke Hogan has publicly threatened legal action against members of her late father Hulk Hogan's inner circle. The 37-year-old daughter of the former wrestling icon accused them of spreading what she called 'blatantly false information' during an interview on TMZ Live – but insisted she is not pursuing any inheritance, and demanded the speculation stop. She hit out after her dad Hulk died of a heart attack on 24 July at age 71 as his private funeral was held on Tuesday in Florida . Brooke declared: 'Whatever representative from that camp that continues to spew these lies, if they want to keep going, grab your best hold, grab your best lawyers because I'm ready to go. 'Because I'm done with it. I'm done, this is ridiculous. I know too much. I've been through too much, I'm not to be played with. I'm done, so it better stop.' She continued on the same show: 'This is ridiculous that it's gone to this point of this war of words… leave him alone, leave me alone and let the poor man go to heaven. Stop coming after me. I'm not the one you want to come after.' Brooke explained in detail how she has not sought any inheritance following her father's death in July. She added: 'I just know how my family is, and I've seen how certain members of my family go after money. 'I have my own job, my husband has a job, we do not have any money coming in from my father since I was 18 years old.' Brooke described her relationship with her father as 'very, very close' despite their later estrangement, saying: 'We've been through a lot… I've forgiven a lot. I've been by his side through everything.' She also dismissed rumors that she rejected gifts or that he was desperate for reconciliation before his death. Brooke said: 'Me and my dad have had multiple conversations where he said sorry. He never said specifically for what. 'Me and my dad were always respectful towards each other, always kind and loving towards each other.' Brooke did not attend Hulk's private funeral, and explained her decision by saying: ' My father hated the morbidity of funerals. He didn't want one. I had to make my own decision to honor him the best and most genuine way I knew how… privately… the way that made me feel the closest to him.' She honored him with her husband Steven Oleksy, 39, and their six-month-old twins, Oliver and Molly, at the beach, his favorite place. This came as Brooke has seemingly offered an olive branch to her estranged stepmother after sharing shocking cremation conspiracy theories. Hulk, whose private funeral was held in Florida on Tuesday , had previously had leukemia and atrial fibrillation, an irregular heart rhythm, the report from the District Six Medical Examiner also said. However, despite his previous health issues, Hogan's daughter Brooke took to social media in the days that followed to accuse the authorities of foul play . And now, she has revealed that the WWE icon's body still has not been cremated as planned as she called for her father's death to be further investigated. 'I'm glad to see that my dad has not been cremated and that Sky is waiting because of family questions,' Brooke wrote on her Instagram story Thursday morning. 'With all of the speculation and uncertainty of my dad's death, I want to personally offer to pay for an autopsy if that's what it takes to get it done. My dad's dignity and legacy deserves it.' Earlier this week, Brooke shared an article by radio personality and Hogan friend Bubba the Love Sponge, which read: 'Quick cremation without autopsy raises questions about Hulk Hogan's death .' Brooke added a caption: 'Exactly.' The Clearwater Police Department attempted to squash any outlandish theory about Hogan's death as they said: 'As previously stated, there are no signs of foul play or anything suspicious about the death'. Hogan was pronounced dead at a hospital less than 90 minutes after medics arrived at his home in Clearwater to answer a call about a cardiac arrest on the morning of July 24, police said. The report said the cause of death was 'natural.' Bubba's allegations include that Hogan's body has already been cremated, somebody could have injected something into the wrestler's dialysis port while he slept to induce a heart attack and questions around why an autopsy wasn't carried out. Bubba, whose real name is Todd Clem, did not offer facts to substantiate his stunning claims, which stem from a report in the Tampa Bay Times from July 31 that says Hogan was 'doing therapy' when he collapsed at his home in Clearwater Beach on July 24. The report says paramedics told staff at Morton Plant Hospital that Hogan had just returned home from surgery and was 'currently waiting to start dialysis'. Clem claims nobody knew the wrestling icon was due to begin dialysis. In a bid to revive him, medics reportedly gave Hogan drugs that can treat excessive levels of potassium, a sign of kidney failure. These can lead to cardiac arrest. Hogan was also given two milligrams of Narcan, the drug that can quickly reverse opioid overdoses. There is no indication that Hogan had overdosed. However, The Tampa Bay Times also revealed the Pinellas County Medical Examiner did not perform an autopsy on Hogan because his death was not deemed to be suspicious. According to his death certificate, Hogan is going to be cremated at the Bay Area Crematory in Clearwater. A specific date for that has not yet been announced. Yet, it appears his widow has now halted plans to move forward with the cremation in order to allow Brooke to have an autopsy conducted amid the speculation shrouding Hogan's passing. In the aftermath of Brooke and Clem's shock allegations, Sky, who married the late wrestler in 2023, had initially hit back. Referring to 'misleading media stories created by faceless AI accounts' and 'people not close enough to truly know what was happening,' Daily urged followers to be 'patient' as news continues to trickle out about Hogan's fatal heart attack. Clem had also referenced Sky's links to Scientology and pointed out that Hogan has an estate that he claims to be worth in the region of $40million to $50m. Speaking to Bubba on his YouTube show this week, Brooke also fed into the paranoia by discussing her early interactions with Daily. 'And she's nice, and she's cool, and, you know, I don't really want to go into too much detail about our conversations, but he was saying, you know, "She's pushing the marriage thing real hard,"' Brooke told Bubba of the time leading up to her father's 2023 marriage to Daily. 'And I said: "Well, Dad, you don't have to do what you don't have to do, you know." Expanding on her father's reasoning for getting married, Brooke claimed he told her that Daily was concerned about leaving the Church of Scientology. '… he goes, "Oh, well, she just doesn't want to leave [the Church of Scientology] because she still wants her kids to be able to see the grandparents and they are the highest level…"'
BBC News
20 minutes ago
- BBC News
Scottish Secretary attacks 'snobby' Edinburgh council over Oasis comments
Scottish Secretary Ian Murray has described City of Edinburgh Council as "snobby" after remarks about Oasis fans ahead of the band's Murrayfield said comments made in a safety briefing which characterised fans of the group as "rowdy," "intoxicated" and "middle-aged men" who "take up more room" were "classist".Murray made the claims during a conversation with comedian Matt Forde during an event at the Edinburgh Festival Council has been contacted for comment. Murray likened the tone of the comments, which were made during a safety advisory group meeting in October of last year, to the alcohol ban at football matches, which he also labelled "snobby".Oasis will play three nights at Murrayfield on Friday evening, followed by Saturday and Tuesday. The gigs are the only three taking place in Scotland as part of the band's reunion will mark the first time they have played in the city since 2009. The safety meeting involved the council, promoters DF Concerts, security firm G4S, Police Scotland, the Scottish Ambulance Service and transport providers including Lothian Buses, Edinburgh Trams and ScotRail.A number of concerns were raised - including about fans of Oasis "on weekends as they are already rowdy", as well as "the tone of the band".It also noted the crowd, put at about 70,000, may feature a number of "middle-aged men," stating they "take up more room" and suggested promoters to consider this when "working out occupancy".DF Concerts suggested the audience would be "energetic and high-spirited" with a "medium to high intoxication". 'Classist and snobby' Murray, Labour MP for Edinburgh South, told Forde the description "sounded like a full council meeting".He pointed out that football fans are prohibited from drinking in stadiums during matches but the same rules do not apply to rugby was previously chairman of the Foundation of Hearts group, which bid to save Heart of Midlothian Football Club from administration in told Forde: "I think it's snobby."I mean, Murrayfield is a great example. You can go and see Scotland versus the All Blacks on a Saturday at three o'clock and get as ratted as you want sitting watching the rugby, and people do, they spend most of their time at the bar."And I remember my team, Hearts, played Celtic there the following day on the Sunday, when Hampden was out of use for the Commonwealth Games, and there was a complete ban on drinking in the stands for the football fans. That's just classist and snobbery."Asked if he wanted to bring back drinking at football stadiums, the Scottish Secretary joked it was either that "or not have rugby drinking". Details of the council meeting were made available by freedom of information request and were initially reported by the Scottish local authority is run by a minority Labour administration, propped up by the Scottish Conservatives and the Scottish Liberal raised the ire of Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher, who said the council's "attitude stinks" in a post on a second post, he added: "I'd love to see a picture of all the people on the Edinburgh council bet there's some real stunning individuals."
Daily Mail
20 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Why Andrew is 'toast': The man who revealed 'highly sexed' Prince Andrew's multiple affairs, the truth about him Trump and Epstein and an Argentine assassination plot tells all to Palace Confidential
Prince Andrew shared a mistress with Bill Clinton, slept with up to 3,000 women and had multiple affairs in his first year of marriage to Sarah Ferguson, a royal biographer claimed today. Andrew Lownie has given an extraordinary first broadcast interview about his book: 'Entitled, the Rise and Fall of the House of York' to the Daily Mail's unmissable Palace Confidential show. The Mail has exclusively serialised the explosive new biography of the Duke of York - a tome already viewed as the royal book of the year. Mr Lownie believes Jeffrey Epstein was blackmailing the 'over sexed' Duke of York, who will find no way back to royal duties. 'When William comes to power, Andrew will be toast. He sees him as a liability to the monarchy and Andrew has not always been very polite about Catherine. William is very protective of his wife', the author and journalist said. Speaking to Palace Confidential host Jo Elvin, Mr Lownie believes Andrew has had between 1,000 and 3,000 lovers and viewed himself as a sex God because women 'threw themselves' at him when he was a young man. But this led to the Duke of York being blackmailed by Jeffrey Epstein and also made him an 'easy target' for hostile foreign states, Mr Lownie claims. 'Jeffrey Epstein provided women and course then used it to blackmail people and Andrew, I'm afraid, fell into that honey trap, not just with Epstein but many other people as well', he said. 'He's so stupid he doesn't realise how stupid he is', Mr Lownie declared in the bombshell interview available now on the Daily Mail Royals YouTube channel. The celebrated biographer, who has also written with authority on the former Edward VIII, Lord Mountbatten and Soviet double agent Guy Burgess, told Palace Confidential: Andrew requested the infamous 'Newsnight' interview believing it would be 'softer' than an investigation being carried out by Panorama, which was 'suppressed' by the BBC; The Duke of York was 'very matey' with Donald Trump, sharing a love of women and golf; Andrew was targeted by spies from Russia and other nations who 'provided girls for him'; One Russian woman seduced Andrew and gave him a bugged Apple laptop; The Argentinian Junta planned to assassinate him on the island of Mustique and the IRA also plotted to kill him on a golf course; Andrew cheated his way through Royal Navy staff college; He was kicked off HMS Broadsword after a fight with an officer who was irate when the prince failed to carry out his duties on board; Mr Lownie believes there was an affair between Prince Philip and Sarah Ferguson's mother, Susan Barrantes; Based on four years of painstaking research and hundreds of interviews, the new biography of Prince Andrew book lays bare his lofty ambitions, thirst for wealth and hedonistic life. The Duke of York had a controversial friendship with billionaire paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, who once declared: 'We are both serial sex addicts. He's the only person I have met who is more obsessed with p***y than me'. Mr Lownie said Andrew 'was apparently a sex addict long before he came into Epstein's orbit. 'He was called Randy Andy, even at school. He's clearly highly sexed. Various numbers have been quoted at me ranging from 1,000 to 3,000 women that he slept with. 'He was good looking, he was a prince and women threw themselves at him. He was a notch on their bedpost and he took advantage of that'. Mr Lownie believes he was unfaithful to Sarah Ferguson on a number of occasions, but so was she. 'There are allegations that both of them had affairs pretty early in the marriage', he said. Mr Lownie claimed that 'girls would be provided for' Andrew and used as kompromat - a Russian word for when compromising material is gathered to blackmail. 'But not just the Russians, the Libyans, countries in the Middle East, people in Kazakhstan, you name it. They've all got kompromat on Andrew', he said. Most notably there was a tall, stunning blonde, who had dyed her hair red, part of a Russian spy ring operating in Britain. She had seduced him in the penthouse of a Knightsbridge hotel, loaned him £25,000 interest-free to pay for one of his daughter's trip to Switzerland. 'She gave him a Mac computer which was bugged', his biographer has said. Mr Lownie has said Andrew was a target for assassination. He said: 'The Argentinian Junta had planned at the time of the Falkands to assassinate him. After the war he went to Mustique with Koo Stark. It was never implemented but it was certainly planned'. He added: 'There have been several assassination threats against Andrew including one by the IRA to get him on a golf course. And this is why his laxity about security, his reluctance to sign his girlfriends into the security gate at Buckingham Palace, is so important'. Andrew's infamous 2019 Newsnight interview with Emily Maitlis Andrew shared a lover with Jeffrey Epstein in Ghislaine Maxwell and also a mistress with Bill Clinton, with the prince and the president crossing paths through their friendship with Epstein. 'He was very flirtatious and a lot of women fell for that', Mr Lownie said. He has not named the woman he believes was having an affair with Andrew and Mr Clinton. He said: 'I know who the woman is. I can't say. But they, and Clinton of course, swam in the same same circles'. He went on: 'It was through Epstein that Prince Andrew met Donald Trump. 'The two things that they [Trump and Andrew] had in common was women and golf. They were very matey, though Trump has denied it since and tried to distance himself. There's plenty of evidence of them meeting together and being photographed'. Speaking to Palace Confidential host Jo Elvin, Mr Lownie lifted the lid on how being 'spoiled' by the Queen fed his breathtaking sense of entitlement over the past 65 years and left him with 'no very strict moral boundaries in his life'. The 'very lazy' Duke of York got a high-flying Oxford graduate to sit his naval college exams and even sent him a thank you note when he passed, Mr Lownie claims. Mr Lownie said that Andrew was later kicked off HMS Broadsword, which the prince served on in the Falklands conflict. 'Andrew ordered a stoking party to go and do some work in between watches in the middle of the night. He didn't go out and supervise it himself as he should have done. The chief stoker was so enraged by this that he actually went to Andrew's cabin and attacked him with with a heavy metal instrument. He added: 'The whole thing was covered up'. In 2022 the Queen stripped him of his HRH, military affiliations and royal patronages as the fallout of the Epstein scandal and a civil case brought against him by Virginia Giuffre, which he later settled for an estimated $16 million (£12million). Mr Lownie claims that Andrew feels no remorse. 'He generally feels he's innocent of anything he did with Virginia Giuffre and others. I think he just feels that that he's been unfairly treated and he's entitled to do some of the things he's doing', he said. The Epstein scandal came to a head for Andrew when he agreed to do a disastrous interview with Newsnight. But Andrew apparently said yes because Panorama were investigating him and he hoped Emily Maitlis would give him an easy ride. Mr Lownie said: 'The real story on the Newsnight interview is that actually it was Panorama who had done the work. 'They had done investigation. They'd interviewed a lot of people and they were giving the Palace a right of reply. 'At the same time Newsnight were also trying to get an interview and I think the Palace decided that it was better to have a what they thought might be a soft interview from Newsnight than to have this interview with Panorama. 'The BBC at times tried to suppress this Panorama investigation, possibly with pressure from the Palace'. In his book Mr Lownie reveals the depth of the Duke of York's breathtaking sense of entitlement including his dream to prevent Charles becoming King after his marriage to Diana failed and he planned to wed Camilla Parker-Bowles. Andrew is even alleged to have lobbied his own mother to allow Prince William to take the throne with him as his Regent in the event that she died. But Andrew's relationship with William is 'not good', Mr Lownie told Palace Confidential. He added that Harry 'still doesn't have much time' for Andrew, despite both being viewed as the royal 'spare'.
