After a six-year hiatus, Normani has finally released her highly anticipated debut album, ‘Dopamine’. The former Fifth Harmony member has said that the album’s prolonged gestation was partly due to personal issues and a musical identity crisis. In recent interviews, Normani has stated that she knows what it feels like to put out records she doesn’t believe in, which is a kind of pressure that she doesn’t want to revisit.
One thing to note about ‘Dopamine’ is that it does not feature Normani’s massively popular 2019 launch single, ‘Motivation’. However, it does contain the sultry, Aaliyah-sampling R&B bop, ‘Wild Side’, featuring Cardi B. The album works its way through 13 tracks with production handled by the likes of Ariana Grande and The Weeknd producer, Tommy Brown, and Rihanna and Beyoncé collaborator, Stargate.
The tracks on ‘Dopamine’ are generally midtempo with an atmospheric and sleek style, interspersed with glistening sex jams like ‘All Yours’ and ‘Lights On’. Normani and her producers present a few different styles such as the ambient R&B of ‘Insomnia’, and the groovy running theme of ‘Take My Time’. ‘Dopamine’s presentation is confident and unhurried, shining with a kind of calm assuredness that can only be the result of someone who has put in the years of training and development necessary to create an album of this quality.
Normani’s duet with James Blake on ‘Tantrums’ serves as proof of her lyrical dexterity, with a punchy line that declares, “You’re just somebody I used to f**k from time to time.” Overall, the album is a testament to Normani’s songwriting skills, representing the kind of work she was always meant to create. ‘Dopamine’ was released on June 14, 2024, via RCA
Read the full article on NME here: Read More