Tinashe is just under two months away from exposing us to her Popstar lifestyle, but that hasn’t stopped her from turning up the heat as she ushers in her new era. Previous singles “Too Easy” and “Crash Out” prove that the set will marry the performer’s pop sensibilities with a dangerous bit of edge. She continues to bring us more of just that with the release of “Melatonin,” the set’s latest listen.
“Melatonin” isn’t as much a song as it is a statement of just how badass Tinashe is. The song is based around a crunching, propulsive electronic beat that melts house and industrial influences into her pop/R&B sound. Its driving rhythm is made mostly to get you dancing (and if it doesn’t do exactly that, you might want to get your pulse checked).
Lyrically, this isn’t one of Tinashe’s deeper tracks. It inititially begins with the singer pitched-down talking her s**t as she comments on those that she caught sleeping on her talents. “Bet you thought we’d stop / You already know we kept it going, getting hella coin,” she sings. “Walking by, I see you hella pointing / Talking, talking, talking, talking, talking / B***h, you hella annoying / Sleeping, sleeping, sleeping on me / B***h, you so melatonin.”
While that bit gets repeated and chopped throughout, there’s also a verse that pops up as well. It gives us the same bit of bravado, as she reminds us that she’s just too fly for anyone to be on her level, with her singing, “You f**king with me, hope you know I’m what you asked for / In a different country, pull up to the back door / Can’t vacation with me, you ain’t got a passport.”
The video for the cut finds Tinashe flaunting her body and several seductive fashions as if she were strutting her stuff on a runway. But, due to the song’s breakneck pace, she’s also showing off her dance ability as well. Nothing here is too choreographed, though, as the many dancers featured throughout the clip allow the beat to simply move their bodies as they see fit. This leads to movements both elegant and spastic as the song amps up the vibe over and over.
It’s sounding like Popstar will be a nonstop Tinashe party. We’ll find out for sure when the singer drops the album on Friday, September 25th.
