Latest news with #FountainBaby
Yahoo
08-08-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Amaarae Shares Video for New Song 'Girlie-Pop!': Watch
Amaarae, photo by Salomé Gomis-Trezise Amaarae has shared a new single from Black Star, the Fountain Baby follow-up arriving next month. 'Girlie-Pop!' comes with a sensual video directed by Omar Jones. Check it out below. In a press release, Amaarae said, ''Girlie-Pop!' started as a freestyle over an open guitar on a magical night in Brazil! I wanted to make a song that embodies the feeling of a kiss from your favorite person in the world. We all dream of finding that one person who sends us into the stars with just a smile and peck on the lips! The Black Star album is all about fun and fantasy! I want 'Girlie-Pop!' to be the soundtrack for when you sit and day dream about your crush.' Black Star arrives August 8, via Interscope, and also features the Ghanaian highlife–inspired single 'S.M.O.' Last year, Amaarae released a stopgap EP, Roses Are Red, Tears Are Blue — A Fountain Baby Extended Play. Originally Appeared on Pitchfork Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
08-08-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
10 New Albums You Should Listen to Now: Amaarae, Gunna, No Joy, and More
All products featured on Pitchfork are independently selected by Pitchfork editors. However, when you buy something through our retail links, Condé Nast may earn an affiliate commission. Amaarae, photo by Jenna Marsh With so much good music being released all the time, it can be hard to determine what to listen to first. Every week, Pitchfork offers a run-down of significant new releases available on streaming services. This week's batch includes new albums from Amaarae, Gunna, No Joy, Ada Lea, Osees, Charley Crockett, Big Freedia, Anamanaguchi, Mechatok, and Field Medic. Subscribe to Pitchfork's New Music Friday newsletter to get our recommendations in your inbox every week. (All releases featured here are independently selected by our editors. When you buy something through our affiliate links, however, Pitchfork earns an affiliate commission.) Amaarae: Black Star [Interscope] Two years after Fountain Baby propelled her into the stratosphere, Amaarae burrows deep into the dance underground on follow-up Black Star. The Ghanaian American singer alternates between gruff monologues and featherlight twirls on songs like rap-forward opener 'Stuck Up,' presenting the club as a site of transgression and intimidation. Single and centerpiece 'Girlie-Pop!' interjects with a perpetually bursting bubble of pop that turns a plosive bombardment—'pop! pop! pop! pop! pop! pop! pop!'—into the sound of joy itself. Listen on Apple Music Listen on Spotify Listen on Tidal Listen on Amazon Music Gunna: The Last Wun [Young Stoner Life/300 Entertainment] Gunna's relationship with longtime label home Young Stoner Life Records has grown fraught since the Atlanta rapper agreed to take an Alford plea in the since-closed racketeering case against the Young Thug–led collective. His new album, The Last Wun, nevertheless arrives via the label, but Young Thug—a regular on Gunna projects until the musicians were indicted in 2022—is absent from the tracklist. Instead, Offset, and Afrobeats favorites Burna Boy, Asake, and Wizkid are the marquee guests of the One of Wun follow-up. Gunna shared two singles ahead of his album's release, 'Him All Along' and 'Won't Stop.' Listen on Apple Music Listen on Spotify Listen on Tidal Listen on Amazon Music No Joy: Bugland [Hand Drawn Dracula] Jasamine White-Gluz enlisted maximalist producer and vaporwave mystic Fire-Toolz for Bugland, her first No Joy album since 2020's Motherhood. If their union promises grand scale and anything-goes abandon, the results are at once more sweeping and more focused than you might expect. Fire-Toolz's hyperbaric production fills watertight songs with astral space that helps White-Gluz's guitars and vocals levitate, as disparate fragments of indie-pop melody, My Bloody Valentine spangle, and a few Paul Oakenfold action beats conspire in spectacular fashion. Listen on Apple Music Listen on Spotify Listen on Tidal Listen on Amazon Music Listen/Buy at Bandcamp Buy at Rough Trade Ada Lea: When I Paint My Masterpiece [Saddle Creek] Ada Lea follows 2021's One Hand on the Steering Wheel the Other Sewing a Garden with When I Paint My Masterpiece, an album 'of breezy, folk-indebted songs that marvel at everyday realities and find joy in humility,' as Marissa Lorusso says in her review. Lea worked on the 16-track record with producer Luke Temple. 'Much of the record was recorded in a single room with a small band, live and loose in rural Ontario,' Lorusso writes. 'That intimacy translates into some transcendent moments, as when a gently distorted guitar riff wonderfully steals the spotlight partway through 'Something in the Wind,' or in the masterful control of tension on 'Down Under the Van Horne Overpass.'' Listen on Apple Music Listen on Spotify Listen on Tidal Listen on Amazon Music Listen/Buy at Bandcamp Buy at Rough Trade Osees: Abomination Revealed at Last [Deathgod] On their whopping 29th album, Osees finally rope some of their garage-rock origins back into the ring after veering off toward synth-punk and heady psych-rock on Intercepted Message and Protean Threat. The new Abomination Revealed at Last charges out the gate with its double-drummer fury on 'Abomination' and rarely slows down. When it does, however, like on the standout 'Sneaker' or the post-punk groove of 'Glitter-Shot,' Osees don't lose any of their focus. If anything, Abomination Revealed at Last is a slight return to form without abandoning what the band has become in recent years. Listen on Apple Music Listen on Spotify Listen on Tidal Listen on Amazon Music Listen/Buy at Bandcamp Buy at Rough Trade Charley Crockett: Dollar a Day [Island] An antidote to the overproduced and polished side of Nashville's country output, Charley Crockett has the drive of old-school country stars with the modern charm to scoop up a Grammy nomination, too. For his latest LP and follow-up to Lonesome Drifter, Crockett reunited with producer Shooter Jennings to flesh out his ongoing Sagebrush Trilogy. The new album, Dollar a Day, lets the warmth of the sun's rays reflect off its slide guitar rambling in 'All Around Cowboy' and the earnest vocal harmonies of 'Crucified Son,' positioning Crockett's latest as an easygoing summer listen. Listen on Apple Music Listen on Spotify Listen on Tidal Listen on Amazon Music Buy at Rough Trade Big Freedia: Pressing Onward [Queen Diva Music] Bounce queen Big Freedia is staying true to her New Orleans roots by bringing her rousing spirit straight to the pews. Named after her local Baptist church, Pressing Onward fuses her high-energy bounce beats with gospel music to reignite her religious faith and desire to bring communities together. With refrains like, 'We don't need a preacher just to go to church,' and, 'Drive the enemy out/Shake that submarine, Big Freedia uses her album to spread party-starting messages of love, acceptance, and perseverance rather than exclude fans based on their faith. Listen on Apple Music Listen on Spotify Listen on Tidal Listen on Amazon Music Anamanaguchi: Anyway [Polyvinyl] Everything you know about Anamanaguchi has shifted on Anyway, their third album and follow-up to 2019's [USA]. The feel-good band turned from chiptune pop toward full-on fuzz rock, writing in a living room–turned–practice space and recording live to tape at Tarbox Road Studios, where Dave Fridmann produced the LP. Though Anamanaguchi's music has long summoned visions of late-night video game console parties and back-of-the-bus GameBoy sessions, the New York quartet now sounds closer to Ovlov or Angel Du$t playing a sweaty dive bar. Yet, as much as Anyway is a pivot, it's still got the heart of Anamanaguchi's longtime sound, as heard on singles 'Buckwild' or 'Rage (Kitchen Sink).' Listen on Apple Music Listen on Spotify Listen on Tidal Listen on Amazon Music Listen/Buy at Bandcamp Buy at Rough Trade Mechatok: Wide Awake [Young] Through his work with both Drain Gang and PC Music, Emir Timur Tokdemir has quietly set up camp at the vanguard of pop music. On Wide Awake, his first formal solo LP, the producer, better known as Mechatok, enlists Isabella Lovestory, Tohji, and—on the club-pop bunker buster 'Expression on Your Face'—Bladee and Ecco2k to showcase his moreish spin on bubblegum synth-pop. Listen on Apple Music Listen on Spotify Listen on Tidal Listen on Amazon Music Listen/Buy at Bandcamp Buy at Rough Trade Field Medic: Surrender Instead [self-released] Billed as a rebirth for Field Medic mastermind Kevin Patrick Sullivan, Surrender Instead is a refresh for the genre-hopping artist following years pursuing sobriety and regular therapy to separate himself from his art. On his ninth LP, he flits from bedroom pop with 'Simply Obsessed' to an acoustic confessional like 'Castle Peaks' in the search for a healthy balance of life versus work. As Sullivan puts it over alt-country twang with a sparkle of romance on 'Melancholy,' he's 'holdin' on while tornadoes tear apart the fabric of [his] mind.' At least he finds a way to make the ride sound scenic. Listen on Apple Music Listen on Spotify Listen on Tidal Listen on Amazon Music Listen/Buy at Bandcamp Buy at Rough Trade Originally Appeared on Pitchfork Solve the daily Crossword
The Guardian
08-08-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Amaarae: Black Star review – glamour, glitz and lust from a pop star who should be a supernova
Fountain Baby, the second album by Amaarae, was a revelation – a sensual, funny, frank and musically dense record released in 2023 that established the 31-year-old Ghanaian American pop musician as a cultural force to match contemporaries such as Rosalía and Charli xcx. Although the songs are hedonistic – largely oscillating between wry flexes of wealth and lyrics about trifling with, and being trifled by, women in her orbit – she is also a realist: actions have consequences in Amaarae's world, such as on Reckless & Sweet, as she wonders whether her lovers desire her or merely her money. 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.
The Guardian
07-08-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Amaarae: Black Star review – glamour, glitz and lust from a pop star who should be a supernova
Fountain Baby, the second album by Amaarae, was a revelation – a sensual, funny, frank and musically dense record released in 2023 that established the 31-year-old Ghanaian American pop musician as a cultural force to match contemporaries such as Rosalía and Charli xcx. Although the songs are hedonistic – largely oscillating between wry flexes of wealth and lyrics about trifling with, and being trifled by, women in her orbit – she is also a realist: actions have consequences in Amaarae's world, such as on Reckless & Sweet, as she wonders whether her lovers desire her or merely her money. 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.
IOL News
24-06-2025
- Entertainment
- IOL News
Ghanaian-American singer Amaarae announces new album with catchy lead single ‘S. M. O. '
Amaarae has announced the release date for her highly anticipated third album, 'Black Star'. Image: Instagram. Ghanaian-American singer Amaarae is quite literally the star of her country's flag on the album art as she announces her upcoming album 'Black Star', which is set to drop on August 8. The new album comes after her 2023 chart-topping sophomore album 'Fountain Baby'. The 30-year-old artist marked her return with a lead single titled 'S.M.O.', setting the tone for what's still to come. Known for her genre-bending fusion of her signature alternative afrobeats sound, she has already given fans a glimpse into the upcoming 13-track album with 'S.M.O.', which is a blend of upbeat afro and techno instruments. The track delves into themes of sexual liberation and empowerment, which is a no-brainer for Amaarae as an artist who usually expresses her sexual being through her music. Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Advertisement Next Stay Close ✕ Ad loading 'For as long as I've made music, fusion has been my strength, and I think this comes to full fruition on 'S.M.O.' The song takes inspiration from Ghanaian 80s highlife trailblazer Ata Kak and blends it with a mean Detroit club bass, a drum roll akin to both Magic System's '1er Gaou' and Michael Jackson's 'Rock With You'. 'I don't know how much clearer one can get when they ask you to 'SLUT ME OUT'. The message can't be mistaken, and the beat makes you move. That's all I want to do this summer, make people dance and feel things!,' she said in a statement. In an interview with 'Rolling Stone', the 'Co-Star' singer revealed that she is driven to create a globally impactful album with 'Black Star', aiming for both commercial and critical success, and will not rest until she achieves it. According to the article, 'Black Star' marks an insightful exploration of the artist's dual identity as a woman and creator, with the title and album art cleverly referencing her own persona, the Ghanaian flag and the rich Black cultural heritage that she blends in her music style. Ghanaian singer Amaarae stuns for the 'Black Star' album art. Image: X In April, she made history as the first solo female Ghanaian artist to grace the Coachella stage. Additionally, she secured a tour spot with Sabrina Carpenter, which would make one wonder what the two artists have in common since their sounds are completely different. Interestingly, Carpenter revealed that she and her friends listen to Amaarae. The 'S.M.O.' singer draws parallels between herself and Carpenter, citing that their forms of expression are not so different. 'She's a freak just like me; it's just a different kind of expression. Hers is bright and colourful; mine is dark and edgy. But we're both saying the same thing: we're sexual beings, and we are women who feel free and confident in that,' she told 'Rolling Stone'.
