Amaarae Black Star
Amaarae's Black Star arrives as a nocturnal, club-first statement that balances hedonism with emotional undercurrents, and the critical consensus suggests it mostly succeeds. Across eight professional reviews the record earned a 76/100 consensus score, with critics praising its adventurous production, pan-Atlantic genre-mixing and star-making swagger even as sequencing and a few weaker moments split opinions.
Reviewers consistently point to standout tracks that crystallize the album's strengths: “S.M.O.” repeatedly surfaces as a club-authority high point, while “100DRUM” and the PinkPantheress-featuring “Kiss Me Thru The Phone pt 2 (with PinkPantheress)” are named among the best songs on Black Star for their show-stopping production and chemistry. Other frequent mentions include “ms60”, “Stuck Up” and “Girlie-Pop!”, which critics credit for delivering the album's lustful, glamorous mission statements. Across reviews, themes of Afrodiasporic dance influences, Y2K nostalgia, experimental pop textures and a tension between euphoria and comedown recur as defining features.
Not all critics are entirely sold: several reviews note inconsistent sequencing and a few undercooked tracks that interrupt momentum, and one critic flags early flatness before the back half restores momentum. Yet the prevailing tone is celebratory—professional reviews describe Black Star as a daring, pleasure-soaked collection that advances Amaarae's Afropop reinvention and cements her pop-star potential. For readers asking what critics say about Black Star and whether it is worth hearing, the consensus score and repeated praise for tracks like “S.M.O.” and “Kiss Me Thru The Phone pt 2 (with PinkPantheress)” argue that the record is a rewarding, if occasionally uneven, leap forward.
Critics' Top Tracks
The standout songs that made critics take notice
ms60
1 mention
"turning the track into a masterclass in poise and power"— New Musical Express (NME)
Kiss Me Thru The Phone pt 2
1 mention
"Over an ambient, trance-washed flip of Sisqó’s ‘Thong Song"— New Musical Express (NME)
100DRUM
2 mentions
"The album's toe-curling moment of gratification arrives on show-stopper "100Drum," when Amaarae takes to the skies."— Resident Advisor
In the video for Black Star 's hot and heavy lead single "S.M.O.", which draws on Ghanaian kpanlogo and zouk rhythms,
Track Ratings
How critics rated each track, relative to this album (0-100). Only tracks that made critics feel something are rated.
Stuck Up
Starkilla (with Bree Runway & Starkillers)
ms60 (with Naomi Campbell)
Kiss Me Thru The Phone pt 2 (with PinkPantheress)
B2B
She Is My Drug
Girlie-Pop!
S.M.O.
Fineshyt
Dove Cameron
Dream Scenario (with Charlie Wilson)
100DRUM (feat. Zacari)
FREE THE YOUTH
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What Critics Are Saying
Deep insights from 8 critics who reviewed this album
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
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The best song is "S.M.O." for its lead-single club authority and pan-Atlantic rhythmic confidence.
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The album's core strengths are its genre-mixing dancefloor vision and balancing of euphoria with downward comedowns.
Themes
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
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The best song, "Stuck Up", is the exhilarating synth-driven opener that sets the album’s hedonistic tone.
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The album’s strengths are its genre-blending production, confident collaborations, and relentless club-ready energy.
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 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
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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.
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The album’s core strengths are its Pan-African fusion, relentless dancefloor energy, and inventive, repetitious vocal hooks.
Themes
Critic's Take
2” - warp love into glamorous danger. 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
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The album’s core strengths are its daring pop reinvention, dancefloor hedonism and vivid explorations of love and longing.
Themes
Critic's Take
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
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Fineshyt is the best song because it turns trance melancholy into tender, relational longing.
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The album's core strength is its sleek, global club production that balances hedonism with moments of genuine emotional payoff.
Themes
Re
Critic's Take
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”. 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
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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
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. 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
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The best song blends club instincts with intimate texture, as “Stuck Up” opens the album like a half-remembered party.
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The album's core strengths are genre-splicing ambition, intimate production, and a refusal to tidy its contradictions.
Themes
Critic's Take
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
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S.M.O. is the standout because it, along with Girlie-Pop!, jolts the album into life and delivers banger-level energy.
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The album’s core strengths are its nocturnal production and a powerful back half that showcases Amaarae’s star-making instincts.