From her penchant for paparazzi-baiting stunts – arriving at a recent London listening party in Y2K cosplay with this second album’s title temporarily tattooed across her lower back – to her music’s outsized mix of sun, sex and sultriness, 24-year-old South African Tyla seems keen to transport us back to more carefree times. On the head-knocking, Christina Milian-esque Mr Nonchalant, for example, she references her belly ring and tells a man she likes his eyes “cuz they match the thong”.
However, as with Rihanna, her constant point of comparison since emerging in 2024 with transatlantic smash Water, Tyla is able to nimbly traverse genres and reference points thanks to a characterful voice that suits every mood. On frustrated opener Is It Love she gives it the full-belt treatment, while on Chanel – an intoxicating fusion of R&B, amapiano and pop – she sits back, riding Nigerian-British producer P2J’s beats as if on a lilo with a cocktail in hand. Even when the rug is pulled out from under her on the shape-shifting banger Kiss, which careens between lithe Afrobeats shuffle and full-on dance-pop breakdown, Tyla manages to pull focus back to her at its centre.
At 14 songs, the bolshie A*Pop gets a little overconfident – closer Hot Tubs isn’t as interesting as its title suggests; the mid-tempo Fairytale is a bit wet – and its focus on love’s highs and lows a tad limiting, but as a bold statement of intent for an old-school superstar, it’s close to top marks.
