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VIBE MAGAZINE reviewed it, it counts of Metacritic, but there's no score...
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Quote:
VIBE Review:
15 Thoughts On Tinashe's 'Aquarius' LP
While pop’s prettiest posteriors were busy twerking for their lives all summer—their catchy rump-shakers sending tremors across dance floors worldwide—Tinashe managed to subtly slink into the party unannounced, directly into the spotlight.
The 21-year-old quadruple threat has risen above music’s collective moon, right to the top of the charts. Her first studio album, Aquarius, is a long time coming for the singing beauty who’s been hiking the Hollywood hills since she was a kid—as the half man’s girlfriend on Two And A Half Men, and part of a girl group, The Stunners, which toured with The Biebs in 2010. In other words, this young stunner is no newbie.
With Tinashe’s RCA debut on repeat, VIBE offers some analysis on her latest. —Shanel Odum
1. Tinashe’s slithering breakout single, “2 On,” was a strategic bait and switch. The static-sticky anthem wasn’t just served up as fete fuel; it was meant to draw us in, to make us curious about the pretty party-promoter and anxious for a debut project that bumps with bangers and swells with sweaty grinders.
2. Aquarius is not that album. (Which actually may be the reason it succeeds.) Instead, her debut is an emo opus—a catchy mix of kiss-the-sky-high hits and lo-fi lullabies that inspire you to get lifted, not turnt up.
3. Tinashe’s a tease. She includes five interludes and an outro on Aquarius and clearly gets off on whetting appetites.
4. Some of these interludes just slow down the show, though. (“Nightfall” is only six seconds short. Why?)
5. She’s a member of a new tribe of breathy songbirds with a penchant for trip hop and doped-up dub beats—a collective choir of pillow-talking purrers, who coo as much as they croon. Let’s just call them The Whisperers 2.0 (think: SZA, Banks, Kelela, Jhene Aiko, Cassie, FKA Twigs, and Willow Smith.)
6. Tinashe’s sound smolders like a pregnant joint, but her voice is far from rolling-paper thin.
7. She’s leading the new school. While her fellow Whisperers have all dropped gorgeous, envelope-pushing alt-R&B gems, Aquarius is the only project that parlays in the pop arena, positioning her to be the first of her synth-loving sorority sisters to actually cross over.
8. True to her album title, Tinashe is an Aquarius and her sound is as airy and fluid as her zodiac sign suggests.
9. She’s selective with her plus ones. Aquarius’ guest list is surprisingly short with only four VIP invites: TDE titan ScHoolboy Q and A$AP Rocky hijack “2 On” and “Pretend,” respectively, with a couple of barbed 16s, Future huffs over bedroom heater “How Many Times,” and Dev Hynes’ seduces with eargasm-inducing guitar licks on “Bet.”
10. The 18-track bundle swells with a gang of badass producers, and the motley crew of DJ Mustard, Stargate, Boi-1da, Evian Christ, Detail, Blood Diamonds and Mike WiLL Made It, manages to maintain a cohesive sound throughout. Instead of sounding schizophrenic, Aquarius is delightfully Paxil.
11. Tinashe wears her influences on her track jacket sleeve, conjuring déjà vu for a Control-era Janet—both stylistically (crop tops, peek-a-boo six-pack, baggy sweats, and combat boots) and sonically (electro-charged rhythms and molasses melodies that skip from flirty to philosophical). Tinashe’s rendition of “Funny How Time Flies” is among the album’s standout moments.
12. Aquarius is a PMS-project. She’s horny (“Throw me on the bed/show me how to love you the right way”), moody (“This pressure ain’t for everybody/Weighing so heavy on my body”), and sensitive (“Sick of wishing/holding on to empty love ambitions”) all in under 60 minutes.
13. She knows how to wield a pen, as well as a mic. Tinashe firmly believes in writing her own music and self-composed every track on the album.
14. Aquarius is Tinashe’s coming-of-age-moment. Striking a delicate balance of cocky and vulnerable, she’s sassy and suggestive without overly-sexualizing herself. She’s an ingénue shedding her innocence and inhibition to claim her independence. We’ve witnessed the same metamorphosis with TLC, Aaliyah, and more recently, Ciara and Cassie.
15. Astrology won’t predict what’s to come—but this is only the beginning for Tinashe. Consider her trajectory into mainstream. Chew on the fact that she wrote and self-produced her first three mixtapes. Then Google “Xylaphone,” the haunting track she released with TV On The Radio-producer Dave Sitek. It’s not a question of which direction she’ll go from here, but just how high is that trajectory? Only time will tell.
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http://www.vibe.com/photo-gallery/re...rius-lp?page=2
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So damn impressive for Tinashe 
