“I’ve always been told by my friends that I’m very catlike,” she told earlier this year, and it's true that there's a certain slick craftiness at play across the ten songs that made up Acts I and II. positioned the 23-year-old Londoner as a shape-shifting pop phenom who blends recognisable melodies with gleeful bait-and-switches, unafraid to hitch her style to something of a learning curve. One track, “Guitar,” even went semi-viral for its alleged invention of a “brand new genre,” dragging her back into tired conversations that have dogged forward-thinking Black popstars like Ravyn Lenae, too. Her classy reply: “Natanya is a genre,” and sets out to prove it.
It seems pointless to describe an album as a love letter to music – aren’t they all? – but Natanya's new mixtape is with the artform, practically bouncing off the walls with the energy of someone explaining their passion. Better yet, it’s all controlled. Rarely does she doubt herself, and if she does she gets it out of the way quickly. Album opener “TICKET STOP” wonders if the financial cost of entering the music business is worth the stress. When do you quit your job and go all in? For Natanya, it’s a no-brainer. “I can’t drop the pen until I see the story changing,” she admits.
Later, she turns down the radio on “HUSH”, purring “I wanna be your favourite song,” while on the cheekily ambiguous “SHOW ME RIGHT!”, she pleads for love in purely musical terms, and might even be talking about songcraft itself: “We’ll go deeper in and discover my calling / Other men around would’ve killed my ambition / But you can play with fire and my disposition,” she sings, seemingly describing a voracious creative partner.
has clear mothers in Janet Jackson and Lady Gaga, but Natanya is an artist who, when asked about her influences, singles out Dorothy Dandridge, A Star Is Born, and… WWE wrestling? “This was the moment where my music needed to sound bigger,” she recently told PopCrave, and the dozen songs here are smothered in her taste for the eccentric.
Witness her zipping from nu-New Jack Swing in “PLAY WITH A KISS!” to Nelly Furtado’s “Maneater”-lite “FANTASISE” and, if you really squint, a mashup of Björk’s “Bachelorette” and “All Neon Like” in “HUSH”. She’ll interpolate Beyoncé’s “Green Light” to sing about male inaction (“DON’T ASK!”), bounce off Rob Base & DJ EZ Rock’s “It Takes Two” for familial estrangement (“FAMILY”), and ape a Cassie meets “Crazy In Love” beat for the self-isolation of “FREAKSHOW”, but, really, her originality is what makes this mixtape soar. Natanya is a genre alright, and it’s pretty wide.
Her oddball writing and stories stack the record with charisma, bursting with characters and language tricks. You either get with it or get behind, not unlike a snappy George Saunders story. “We’ve been honest and playing our chess / Play-a-role this and play-a-role that,” the early-2000s thumper “DON’T ASK!” disses, while the dreamy "APPETITE" recounts a sunny vacation with a "Mr. Heart of Stone" (perhaps the same "Mr. Industry" she begs to pay attention on "TICKET STOP"), singing "All we’ve done is change location / Hiding under palm trees now.”
Even a glittery dance-pop bop like “CANDYLAND!” isn’t immune to her abstract, somewhat hard-to-get-a-hold-on writing. What exactly makes up the “innocence of cinnamon”? The “sugar thoughts” she tries to fight? “When this conceit is over, you're invited to hold me,” she ends one snappy verse. Often her lines feel refracted through a typical pop ecosystem, a cut-and-paste process that puts style above meaning. If 50 Cent promised to take you to the candy shop, Natanya will circle the block a few times to make sure you know what you’re signing up for.
Still, from its opening words and well beyond, makes a hell of a case for pop superstardom through Natanya's sheer talent and unflappable charisma. It’s tough to think of a similar debut powered by so much determination and resourcefulness. May the attitude era last long and prosper.