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It’s never too late to listen to Normani’s magnificent debut album, DOPAMINE. Yes, its 2024 release was rather quiet after years of pushbacks, broken promises, and personal turmoil for Normani and her family (something people very often forget whilst they endlessly critique her). Those very same people also claim that they’ve been waiting for this album, yet nobody seems to know about it? Like, not one attempt at typing “Normani album” into your phone, even though you wanted it soooo bad? Clearly I have strong feelings here, but I’m also accepting that music consumption has changed—outside of a handful of people who really love music, people consume what comes to them. So if something isn’t marketed aggressively, hyperbranded, curated, and intentionally communicated, and then picked up by the Algorithmic gods and chosen for at least semi-virality, it might as well have not happened in the minds of the General Public—even if they had or have genuine in that artist or genre. And while I could write a think piece about all of #THAT—I’d soooooo much rather let y’all niggas know about DOPAMINE because it’s been here for two years and it just gets better and better.
On most days, my absolute favorite is “Insomnia.” It was #4 on my best of 2024 list, further proof of my undying love for the sad girl anthem. The Brandy assist in the intro + resulting undergird of the song is breathtaking, incorporating new husky background vocals + an interpolation of a 2008 deep cut + Brandy fan favorite “A Capella (Something’s Missing)”—which is a vocal arranging masterpiece introduced to me by Kaedi Philo back in 2017 when she bodied an a cappella cover of this song on the bass line + first verse, chorus and bridge.
“Big Boy”, “Candy Paint,” and “Grip” are monstrous records—they remind me of Amerie (“1 Thing”), Beyoncé (“Get Me Bodied”, “Work It Out”), and Ciara (all of it! that’s her mother!) “Tantrums” is a fantastic, bouncy and haunting James Blake feature that helps the album stay strong through the end. “1:59” feat. Gunna is a giant grower, coated with that alluring mid aughts summer sound. ”Still” is urban radio bait and will always be a hit that got away and my most played track from DOPAMINE is “All Yours” (it was number one on my Spotify wrapped in 2024). It’s toxic, hypnotic, sexy. Peep this excerpt from my best of 2024 list, where it ranked #12:
“It’s dark and stormy pop-R&B with an incredibly effective song structure…Normani has long built her own onomatopoeic language in service of her music’s hypnosis, and its that “load it up like doo-doo-doo” (“Wild Side”) and “in your head like/mm-ah/mm-ah” (“All Yours”) that sinks its teeth into you..At the end, we get the release— an ever-satisfying outro coated in long whole notes from Mani, a rare departure from her usual slinky staccato. Hypnotic, engrossing, engulfing, and luscious.”
I hear “All Yours” as the epilogue of “Wild Side”—the Aaliyah-flipped, Cardi B assisted 2022 smash that closes the album. While it’s not typically associated with the DOPAMINE in the general public’s eyes, it reminds us yet again that when Normani drops, we all look and listen. The video is unforgettable—and nothing released this decade has even touched her and Sean Bankhead’s choreo at 1:02, or her and Cardi B scissoring.
The album is such a fun, refreshing listen with so much to uncover—it sucks that it gets overshadowed by whatever expectation the world had of a truly talented, effervescent and in-demand woman whose career hasn’t been as linear as many thought it would be. So, if you ever find yourself wondering, “what ever happened to Normani?” go listen to this incredibly strong debut album!
p.s
My 2024 Spotify Wrapped…almost half of the songs in the Top 10 are from DOPAMINE. it was serious for me.
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CD Radio is a platform where I muse about the music I’m listening to and tell you why I love it. In this digitally gluttonous/hyperconsumptive/painfully oversaturated music and media climate, a lot of people are struggling to keep up with music or find good music at all. CD Radio is my answer to that problem— I’m helping you cut through the noise and not just discover but properly experience great music because there’s still so much of it, and not enough space and time to revel in it. Think of me as scraping off the top for you.
— Cahleb