Tinashe - Pretend (feat. A$AP Rocky)

Pretend is the second single off of Tinashe’s first studio album Aquarius, and while I wasn’t a big fan of her first song, 2 On, I think Pretend may be better suited to get her name out there. The overwrought production muddies up the melody and detracts from Tinashe’s sultry vocals, but when the chorus hits and the backbeat gets muted you get some real star quality from that voice. Reminiscent of Jhene Aiko, Tinashe is capable of putting some real soul into the lyrics, but during the verses she gets dangerously close to sounding whiny when trying to pull back the power in her voice. A$AP Rocky doesn’t do much for me on this track (or any other, to be honest) but he doesn’t detract from it either. While Pretend has its flaws, it has made me very curious to see what else is coming from Tinashe. C+