Last Year Was Weird, Vol. 3 EP - Tkay Maidza: Review
Tkay Maidza
is an Australian rapper and singer who first drew attention with her 2016 debut album on Interscope before transitioning to 4AD for the series of Last Year Was Weird EPs. Vol. 2 was released just last year to resounding critical acclaim, building up hype for this quick follow up.
Review By Lav:
While I haven't been the loudest supporter of Tkay in her career so far, I have been paying attention. What I've seen is an artist who is improving every single time I hear from her and I knew that it was time to properly review her work. This came after enjoying her EP last year and enjoying the trio of singles leading up to this EP even more. While this isn't quite the earth-stopper that Vol. 2 was for many people, Vol. 3 has some major highlights and a pretty consistent run of great songs at its core.
While I haven't been the loudest supporter of Tkay in her career so far, I have been paying attention. What I've seen is an artist who is improving every single time I hear from her and I knew that it was time to properly review her work. This came after enjoying her EP last year and enjoying the trio of singles leading up to this EP even more. While this isn't quite the earth-stopper that Vol. 2 was for many people, Vol. 3 has some major highlights and a pretty consistent run of great songs at its core.
While we're here we should get the weak points of the EP out of the way not, which weirdly enough are the opening and closing tracks. Eden is a pleasant opening track, a bright and bouncy pop rap cut that fuses trap high hats with some sweet strings. I'm not loving most of the refrains on the song even though Tkay's voice is quite nice, paired with the samples that bookend the track its one of the least fleshed out moments here. Breathe is the closing track but for some reason it's the EPs most lowkey cut. The beat is so steady at the start of the song that it kind of takes the breathe out of the great streak that the tracklist was on up to that point. But even once the instrumental kicks off into something futuristic and kind of cool, the song totally stagnates in its progression and spends most of the back half of the track just wandering out.
All of the songs in between these two cuts are pretty good, ranging from decent to absolutely spectacular. Let's start at the former end and work our way up. So Cold has a thick groove and some fragile but quite beautiful vocals. The song is once again compositionally light particularly in the second half where is wanders out of its composition, but it does sound undeniably pretty. Kim was a single I didn't originally love but I think its better within this tracklist. Tkay and Yung Baby Tate keep up the records hype energy with a pair of skillful and infectious verses. The hook is definitely my least favorite element of the track even though its a decent refrain the repetition of it makes it nearly meaningless by the end of the song but I still found it enjoyable here.
High Beams has more luxurious lyrical content and a hook that kicks the song off with an infectious energy. Once again Tkay's confidence as a performer is engaging even if her flows do bounce around a bit in quality. The distortion layered into the beat, particularly on the hook, actually add some texture to it and I think it's improved overall. Cashmere is a wonderful song that I loved as a single. It has a much more R&B inspired flare than the other singles and I mean like true 90's warm and smooth R&B. I wouldn't necessarily Tkay is getting deep into her feelings or going extremely vulnerable lyrically but she definitely shows off another, equally compelling side to herself.
Syrup is the song that really got me hyped for this project. It's a bad bitch banger that has been one of the defining songs of my hot girl summer. I'm not sure I've ever heard Tkay make a song that goes with hard with the booming distorted beat and short fiery flows the whole thing is absolutely intoxicating and I've listened to it at least 100 times in the past few months. I wasn't expecting to hear many tracks here that I liked nearly as much as Syrup but along comes Onto Me an insanely catchy R&B cut with a fantastic breathy hook and bouncy keys worked into the beat that I can't get enough of. The array of vocals on display are impressive but it's really the songwriting that sells the track and makes for yet another excellent standout moment.
Last Year Was Weird Vol. 3 has some major highlights and generally a pretty consistent tracklist. But with a project that is just over 20 minutes some of those misses start to weigh heavy, and songs that fall just short of being great start to add up. It's only because expectations for the project were so high that it feels disappointing for me to only enjoy MOST of the songs here. Despite that I think Tkay has more than proved herself to be one of the best performers in the industry at the moment and I can't wait to see what she does next, because despite its flaws I still think this EP is quite good. 7/10
This cover has a lot going on. It's maximalist to the extreme. While it's subject is very busy the color directs your eyes to exactly where you need to look. The white of the clothing pops from the rest of the composition and helps you make sense of it all. I like the detailing in the foreground and background. This may be hard to view on a phone but will pop on any physical print. 6.5/10
