Amaarae Black Star

Critic's Take

Amaarae leans into decadent club maximalism on Black Star, where the best songs - notably “Stuck Up” and “Girlie-Pop!” - act like joyously lustful mission statements. Johnston’s ear for sleight-of-hand production makes “Stuck Up” a exhilarating opener and “Girlie-Pop!” a giddy manifesto about switching genres till things pop. The album’s collaborations, from PinkPantheress to Bree Runway and Charlie Wilson, sharpen rather than dilute Amaarae’s vision, keeping the listener glued to the pleasure sensors. Overall, Black Star feels like a sweaty, lusty thrill ride controlled by an artist fully confident in her delicious excesses.

Key Points

• The best song, "Stuck Up", is the exhilarating synth-driven opener that sets the album’s hedonistic tone.
• The album’s strengths are its genre-blending production, confident collaborations, and relentless club-ready energy.

Themes

Critic's Take

Amaarae's Black Star is a deliriously fun, club-first record where the best songs - notably “Starkilla” and “100DRUM” - make the album sing. The reviewer revels in her cheeky, jet-setting persona and Y2K nods while praising the genre-mashup craft that powers tracks like “Girlie-Pop!” and “Stuck Up”. Production highs land on “100DRUM” - called the show-stopper - while “Kiss Me Thru The Phone Pt. 2” and some nostalgia cuts feel underwhelming. Overall, the record stakes Amaarae's claim to modern alté stardom even when the hooks occasionally fizzle.

Key Points

• The best song is "100DRUM" because it is called the show-stopper and the best-produced track, imbuing Amaarae's voice with power.
• The album's core strength is its genre mashups that blend Ghanaian forms with global club sounds to create a deliriously fun alté club record.

Themes

Critic's Take

Amaarae's Black Star reads like a pleasure-soaked victory lap, and the review points repeatedly to high points such as “S.M.O.” and “B2B” as best tracks on Black Star for their club authority and daring production. The critic's voice favours cataloguing influences and scenes - from CzechSlovakAtlanta swagger on “Starkilla” to the mesmeric deep house of “B2B” - arguing those songs crystallize the album's pan-Atlantic ambition. Lyrically and sonically, the record balances revelry and comedown, which is why “S.M.O.” and “B2B” emerge as the best songs on Black Star in this reading.

Key Points

• The best song is "S.M.O." for its lead-single club authority and pan-Atlantic rhythmic confidence.
• The album's core strengths are its genre-mixing dancefloor vision and balancing of euphoria with downward comedowns.

Themes

Critic's Take

Amaarae leans hard into Pan-African club energy on Black Star, making the best tracks feel like nocturnal anthems rather than mere experiments. The review singles out “SMO” as the thesis of the record and praises “Starkilla” and “Free The Youth” as peak moments, citing their carnal, neo-noir and dembow-driven fury. The tone is celebratory and exacting, noting that melody yields to repetitious hooks, call-and-response coos and pitch-shifted vocal play that make these songs the best tracks on Black Star.

Key Points

• The best song, "Free The Youth", is hailed as the album highlight that completes Amaarae’s shift to future-pop with a dembow-inflected finale.
• The album’s core strengths are its Pan-African fusion, relentless dancefloor energy, and inventive, repetitious vocal hooks.

Themes

Critic's Take

Amaarae strides into full popstar mode on Black Star, a dizzy headrush where the best songs - “ms60”, “She Is My Drug” and “Kiss Me Thru The Phone Pt. 2” - warp love into glamorous danger. The review revels in the record's runway confidence and chemical euphoria, praising “ms60” as a masterclass in poise and power while noting “She Is My Drug” flips longing into vivid self-destruction. The NME voice finds Amaarae at her most love-starved on “Kiss Me Thru The Phone Pt. 2”, where parasocial thirst and despair collide. Overall, Black Star is cast as a hedonistic pop recalibrator that feels bold, unfiltered and unapologetically hers.

Key Points

• The best song is “ms60” because it is described as a masterclass in poise and power with Naomi Campbell’s commanding hyping.
• The album’s core strengths are its daring pop reinvention, dancefloor hedonism and vivid explorations of love and longing.

Themes

Critic's Take

In the restless authority of Amaarae, Black Star stakes its claim through texture and tension - the best songs, like “Stuck Up” and “Kiss Me Thru The Phone pt. 2”, turn club instincts into intimate experiments. The record prefers friction to finish, so tracks such as “ms60” and “Slut Me Out/S.M.O.” land as immediate dancefloor wins while still feeling coyly off-kilter. There are falters - the reviewer names the clunky “Dove Cameron” - but those failures are generative, keeping Black Star mutating and alive rather than neat.

Key Points

• The best song blends club instincts with intimate texture, as “Stuck Up” opens the album like a half-remembered party.
• The album's core strengths are genre-splicing ambition, intimate production, and a refusal to tidy its contradictions.

Themes

Critic's Take

After the high bar of Fountain Baby, Amaarae’s Black Star arrives lithe and nocturnal but uneven, opening with flatter moments on “Starkilla” and “ms60” before finding lifeblood in the back half. The one-two of “Girlie-Pop!” and “S.M.O.” jolts the record into focus, and songs like “Dove Cameron” and “100DRUM” show the star-making brilliance that had been absent early on. For listeners asking what the best songs on Black Star are, the review points squarely to “S.M.O.”, “Dove Cameron” and “100DRUM” as the tracks that rescue and define the album.

Key Points

• S.M.O. is the standout because it, along with Girlie-Pop!, jolts the album into life and delivers banger-level energy.
• The album’s core strengths are its nocturnal production and a powerful back half that showcases Amaarae’s star-making instincts.

Themes

Critic's Take

In this review Shaad D'Souza frames Amaarae's Black Star as a sleek, hugely enjoyable club record where pleasure is paramount, and he singles out “Fineshyt” and “Kiss Me Thru The Phone pt 2” as the album's emotional centerpieces. He writes with the same sharp cultural eye that praised Fountain Baby, noting how “Fineshyt” turns trance's melancholy into something tender and how “Kiss Me Thru The Phone pt 2” showcases surprising vocal chemistry with PinkPantheress. The reviewer keeps a measured, slightly ironic tone - admiring the album's globalist production while noting its unabashed hedonism - and concludes that Black Star is Amaarae having fun without sacrificing emotional payoff.

Key Points

• Fineshyt is the best song because it turns trance melancholy into tender, relational longing.
• The album's core strength is its sleek, global club production that balances hedonism with moments of genuine emotional payoff.

Themes