Amaarae -- The Angel You Don't Know: Review

Amaarae -- The Angel You Don’t Know

[Platoon]

Ambitious up-and-comer hailing from Accra, Ghana Amaarae arrives with her full length debut record The Angel You Don’t Know. Released November 13th, 2020 the album has been several years in the making and finds the intriguing Afro-popstar reaching a point of cultural breakthrough.

Starting with making covers of Usher songs with her friends in middle school, Amaarae lives and breathes music. Originally studying in Atlanta, USA to break into the music industry as a studio engineer, she never stopped producing her mixtapes in secret and worked up a hidden discography of her own.

In 2018 she released her debut EP Passionfruit Summers which shook the African and global pop music scenes. It’s cutting edge fusion of pop, modern r&b, and hip hop was fresh and stood out in the wave of Gen Z musicians toying with the same things. Also the songwriting is stellar as each song on the EP focuses on a breakup while the mood of the beats clash, reflecting a new relationship in Amaarae’s life.

Amaarae was all set up for an exciting release leading up to The Angel You Don’t Know. Her notoriety as a pop auteur and a gender-reverting badass led the pop scene to her doorstep at the day of release. So while she whipped up a frenzied audience for her debut larger than ever before, Amaarae presented them a record that was kinda the same.

The intriguing sway and moodiness of Passionfruit Summers carried over into these beats. Not necessarily in a bad way, but not in a good way much either. Sometimes, Amaarae leans too hard on to the same samba rhythm that is a safe bet for pop percussion but can get a bit old. She’s not really expanding or shaking up the sound from Passionfruit Summers and The Angel You Don’t Know feels like just a continuation of that sound.

Some songs here, especially slow burners, get stuck in a lull where Amaarae isn’t entertaining much with her vocals and the production isn’t doing much to drive the mood of the album. These cuts can be groovy yes, but they leave much to be desired in their structure and short runtimes. And it’s sad because the few places where the instrumentals are floundering in monotony, Amaarae leaves them out to dry. In contrast to the fiery beats on the rest of the album, there are stretches in songs (specifically solo songs) that have her leaving too much dead air.

But those lulls are truly few and far between because most songs here deliver the groovy, sexy edge Amaare is shooting for. Tracks like “LEAVE ME ALONE” and “CELINE” draw you into her jagged colorful world. “FANCY” (and its lavish music video) is a goddamn banger and has really grown on me over time since I first listened to it.

All tracks here are carried by and seek to uplift Amaarae’s voice. Her high unique tone is clearly a summation of her influences but is still so distinct and is the ‘X’ factor of The Angel You Don’t Know. The catchy vocal line on “LEAVE ME ALONE” is so fluid and fuses unrelenting rap cadence with high-pitched pop euphoria. Her swagger on songs like “HELLZ ANGEL” just reeks with charisma in her delivery and witty lyrics: “I don't make songs, Bitch, I make memories, I don't like thongs, Cuz they ride up in jeans”.

The features, although not known to American audiences (like me), do a lot to elevate the color on the songs. Princess Adjua’s chorus brings together “FEEL A WAY” and Moliy’s contributions on this song and also “SAD GIRLZ LUV MONEY” are smooth. “FANTASY” brings on Maesu and CKay who both add a lot of the sonic diversity to the song.

“Jumping Ship”, featuring Kojey Radical and Cruel Santino, might be my favorite song here. It’s kinetic vocals and personal verses instantly make it an earworm classic. Amaarae and the features chip in creative verses but come together to harmonize beautifully in the chorus. The clean lofi guitar line and groovy bass line combine perfectly under the skipping samba percussion, giving it a richer energy than any other song here.

Amaarae comes through on her debut record that doesn’t expand on her sound as much as it expands her brand but still offers some great tracks too. If you didn’t know the Angel yet, now you know.

RIYL: Tyler the Creator, Ariana Grande, The Weeknd

Listen To: “FANCY”, “JUMPING SHIP”

3.5/5.

I'm trying out rating systems so let's see how this goes ;)