A sequel to Nicki Minaj's 2010 debut Pink Friday, this super-stuffed album (22 tracks, 70-plus minutes) finds the rap queen defending her throne and showing off her diverse range of skills. It kicks off with a slow jam, "Are You Gone Already"—a lullaby for her dad, killed in a hit-and-run in 2022—that interpolates large, sped-up chunks of Billie Eilish's "When the Party's Over." But right after that is "Barbie Dangerous" highlighting Minaj's signature rapid-fire precision on inventive verses that reference her young son (nicknamed Papa Bear): "Name a rapper that can channel Big Poppa and push out Papa Bear/ Ho, I'm mother of the year." Moody "Nicki Hendrix," featuring an Auto-Tuned Future serves as a reminder tha Minaj can sing with real emotion. Excellent "Let Me Calm Down" shines with a '90s throwback feel—delivering silky-smooth R&B balladry, hard-spitting from Minaj and a breathtaking, roller-coaster guest turn from J. Cole as he defends the queen. Indeed, Minaj flexes her power via the big names she's able to enlist. Drake brings the sexy come-ons for dance-floor ready "Needle," with its island-breeze vibes and references to Minaj's Trinidadian origin story. On twinkly "RNB," Lil Wayne goads and Tate Kobang croons, while Minaj swears her ride-or-die devotion. As usual, Minaj seemingly takes swipes at rivals, including Megan Thee Stallion on bombastic "FTCU." She also pulls out her notorious alter egos, such as Harajuku Barbie on "Cowgirl"—which also shines with dreamy singer-songwriter guitar and Lourdiz singing sweetly about a sex position. Minaj's other selves mostly stay in the closet, though new addition Red Ruby gets introduced via irresistible "Red Ruby da Sleeze," a spicy dancehall-flavored track that samples Lumidee's 2003 hit "Never Leave You." Pop hits are put to good use on bass-booming "My Life" (Blondie's "Heart of Glass") and "Pink Friday Girls," which borrows all the best part of Cyndi Lauper's "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" and is sheer exuberance in the vein of Minaj's 2012 classic "Starships." Divisive "Everybody" turns the madness up to 11, sampling the Junior Senior earworm "Move Your Feet" and layering on a tongue-twister verse from Lil Uzi Vert. Minaj sprays her lyrics in short spurts and cleverly uses the sample: "Pretty face with a Barbie doll (Body)/ 'Nother year, 'nother Vince Lom' (Body)." Get ready, because it's going to be blasting from cars and TikTok videos for months to come. Super fun "Super Freaky Girl" samples Rick James and leans hard into a cheerleader chant ("F-R-EEEE-A-K"), with lines that range from cartoon double-entendres to plainspoken raunch. Minaj completely switches gears on "Blessings," featuring gospel singer Tasha Cobbs Leonard, and sincerely thanks God for all she has in life. Finally, she switches to a deeper, T-Boz-like register and reggae feel for "Just the Memories"—a sincere-sounding reminder of how Minaj got here: "I remember when I was the girl that everybody doubted/ When every label turned me down, and then they laughed about it/ I 'member goin' home and writin' fifty more raps." © Shelly Ridenour/Qobuz

On her debut studio album, 2010's Pink Friday, Nicki Minaj made it clear she could do it all. The bloodthirsty rap powers she'd displayed on her earlier mixtapes were so abundant she had to organize them as separate characters, but she also had no problem singing sugary hooks or following scandalous diss tracks with bouncy pop tunes designed for the charts. Thirteen years later, Minaj is still striking out in all directions on Pink Friday 2, a sequel to her breakthrough that sees her continuing to stretch her range, but it feels a little different coming from an established superstar than Pink Friday felt coming from a relative newcomer. First, there's the pop; several tracks reiterate a formula that's resulted in multiple hits for Minaj, that of building out on ubiquitous songs from the past. Her hypersexual rhymes on "Super Freaky Girl" are a tailored fit for the familiar groove of Rick James' "Super Freak" that the song is based on, while "Pink Friday Girls" leans heavily on Cyndi Lauper's "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" and "My Life" samples Blondie's biggest song, "Heart of Glass." The seething rap tracks happen mostly in the album's first act, with concise burners like "Barbie Dangerous" and "FTCU" leading to more nuanced production on the moody J. Cole-aided "Let Me Calm Down" and the infectious meanness of "Big Difference." Minaj imprints herself onto bumpy, island-tinged R&B on "Needle" (featuring Drake, naturally), boisterous club on "Everybody," deep trap on the Future duet "Nicki Hendrix," and banging dancehall on "Forward from Trini," with help from Jamaican artists Skillibeng and Skeng. The swings between genres are less jarring than when Minaj lets her guard down emotionally. The album begins on a surprisingly mournful note with "Are You Gone Already," a song that reframes Billie Eilish's vaporous "when the party's over" as a vulnerable expression of loss. The album's closing moments are similarly glum, with the slogging devotional track "Blessings" giving way to melancholic pop on the indie-flavored "Last Time I Saw You" and ending with the yearning sadness of "Just the Memories." The way Minaj moves between disparate genres and polar extremes of puffed-up flexing and grief makes Pink Friday 2 a disjointed ride. In one way, it harkens back to the scattershot energy of her mixtapes, trying on new styles and sounds like different outfits. For a star of Nicki Minaj's caliber, however, the roller-coaster approach makes the album feel inconsistent and sometimes even randomized, like some stretches of the 70-minute, 22-track playlist are just experiments being presented in the order in which they were conducted. While Minaj is still a masterful rapper, charismatic pop presence, and stunningly talented artist, Pink Friday 2 lacks the cohesion and self-editing that would make it a rightful follow-up to her 2010 mainstream arrival. As it stands, Pink Friday 2 is another collection of Nicki Minaj songs, most of them exhilarating and fun, but some forgettable or awkwardly placed.© Fred Thomas /TiVo

On her debut studio album, 2010's Pink Friday, Nicki Minaj made it clear she could do it all. The bloodthirsty rap powers she'd displayed on her earlier mixtapes were so abundant she had to organize them as separate characters, but she also had no problem singing sugary hooks or following scandalous diss tracks with bouncy pop tunes designed for the charts. Thirteen years later, Minaj is still striking out in all directions on Pink Friday 2, a sequel to her breakthrough that sees her continuing to stretch her range, but it feels a little different coming from an established superstar than Pink Friday felt coming from a relative newcomer. First, there's the pop; several tracks reiterate a formula that's resulted in multiple hits for Minaj, that of building out on ubiquitous songs from the past. Her hypersexual rhymes on "Super Freaky Girl" are a tailored fit for the familiar groove of Rick James' "Super Freak" that the song is based on, while "Pink Friday Girls" leans heavily on Cyndi Lauper's "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" and "My Life" samples Blondie's biggest song, "Heart of Glass." The seething rap tracks happen mostly in the album's first act, with concise burners like "Barbie Dangerous" and "FTCU" leading to more nuanced production on the moody J. Cole-aided "Let Me Calm Down" and the infectious meanness of "Big Difference." Minaj imprints herself onto bumpy, island-tinged R&B on "Needle" (featuring Drake, naturally), boisterous club on "Everybody," deep trap on the Future duet "Nicki Hendrix," and banging dancehall on "Forward from Trini," with help from Jamaican artists Skillibeng and Skeng. The swings between genres are less jarring than when Minaj lets her guard down emotionally. The album begins on a surprisingly mournful note with "Are You Gone Already," a song that reframes Billie Eilish's vaporous "when the party's over" as a vulnerable expression of loss. The album's closing moments are similarly glum, with the slogging devotional track "Blessings" giving way to melancholic pop on the indie-flavored "Last Time I Saw You" and ending with the yearning sadness of "Just the Memories." The way Minaj moves between disparate genres and polar extremes of puffed-up flexing and grief makes Pink Friday 2 a disjointed ride. In one way, it harkens back to the scattershot energy of her mixtapes, trying on new styles and sounds like different outfits. For a star of Nicki Minaj's caliber, however, the roller-coaster approach makes the album feel inconsistent and sometimes even randomized, like some stretches of the 70-minute, 22-track playlist are just experiments being presented in the order in which they were conducted. While Minaj is still a masterful rapper, charismatic pop presence, and stunningly talented artist, Pink Friday 2 lacks the cohesion and self-editing that would make it a rightful follow-up to her 2010 mainstream arrival. As it stands, Pink Friday 2 is another collection of Nicki Minaj songs, most of them exhilarating and fun, but some forgettable or awkwardly placed.© Fred Thomas /TiVo

On her debut studio album, 2010's Pink Friday, Nicki Minaj made it clear she could do it all. The bloodthirsty rap powers she'd displayed on her earlier mixtapes were so abundant she had to organize them as separate characters, but she also had no problem singing sugary hooks or following scandalous diss tracks with bouncy pop tunes designed for the charts. Thirteen years later, Minaj is still striking out in all directions on Pink Friday 2, a sequel to her breakthrough that sees her continuing to stretch her range, but it feels a little different coming from an established superstar than Pink Friday felt coming from a relative newcomer. First, there's the pop; several tracks reiterate a formula that's resulted in multiple hits for Minaj, that of building out on ubiquitous songs from the past. Her hypersexual rhymes on "Super Freaky Girl" are a tailored fit for the familiar groove of Rick James' "Super Freak" that the song is based on, while "Pink Friday Girls" leans heavily on Cyndi Lauper's "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" and "My Life" samples Blondie's biggest song, "Heart of Glass." The seething rap tracks happen mostly in the album's first act, with concise burners like "Barbie Dangerous" and "FTCU" leading to more nuanced production on the moody J. Cole-aided "Let Me Calm Down" and the infectious meanness of "Big Difference." Minaj imprints herself onto bumpy, island-tinged R&B on "Needle" (featuring Drake, naturally), boisterous club on "Everybody," deep trap on the Future duet "Nicki Hendrix," and banging dancehall on "Forward from Trini," with help from Jamaican artists Skillibeng and Skeng. The swings between genres are less jarring than when Minaj lets her guard down emotionally. The album begins on a surprisingly mournful note with "Are You Gone Already," a song that reframes Billie Eilish's vaporous "when the party's over" as a vulnerable expression of loss. The album's closing moments are similarly glum, with the slogging devotional track "Blessings" giving way to melancholic pop on the indie-flavored "Last Time I Saw You" and ending with the yearning sadness of "Just the Memories." The way Minaj moves between disparate genres and polar extremes of puffed-up flexing and grief makes Pink Friday 2 a disjointed ride. In one way, it harkens back to the scattershot energy of her mixtapes, trying on new styles and sounds like different outfits. For a star of Nicki Minaj's caliber, however, the roller-coaster approach makes the album feel inconsistent and sometimes even randomized, like some stretches of the 70-minute, 22-track playlist are just experiments being presented in the order in which they were conducted. While Minaj is still a masterful rapper, charismatic pop presence, and stunningly talented artist, Pink Friday 2 lacks the cohesion and self-editing that would make it a rightful follow-up to her 2010 mainstream arrival. As it stands, Pink Friday 2 is another collection of Nicki Minaj songs, most of them exhilarating and fun, but some forgettable or awkwardly placed.© Fred Thomas /TiVo

If ever there was a group that seemed destined for one-hit wonder status it was Aqua. Their huge 1997/1998 hit "Barbie Girl" was a cleverly designed piece of trifle, fueled by delirious Euro-disco beats and the helium-voiced Lene Grawford Nystrom, along with her comically gruff counterpart, Rene Dif. The song was giddy, silly fun, but it was hard to see how they could top it. Indeed, their debut, while entertaining, didn't show a lot of variety. So, it was easy to assume that their second album, Aquarius, would disappear upon its release in the spring of 2000. Well, that isn't really the case. Although they may never quite have a hit as large as "Barbie Girl" -- particularly in America, where Europop acts are always seen as one-hit wonders (with the notable exception of ABBA) -- Aquarius is superior to its predecessor in every way. Aqua never strays from their danceable Europop foundation, but they find remarkable variety within that framework. The hooks aren't always the same, the pace is varied and, most importantly, the production is bubbling with details. Each song is an individual creation, from the anthemic ballad "We Belong to the Sea" to the goofy country music parody "Freaky Friday." Every cut is blessed with its own vivid details -- banjos, layered vocals, and the cinematic, sweeping strings of "Back From Mars" -- thanks to chief producers and songwriters Søren Rasted and Claus Norreen. This is anything but a one-note album, even if Aqua's sonic signatures -- the pounding disco beats, the high spirits, the big hooks, and the seemingly mismatched pair of Nystrom and Dif -- remain the same. Certainly, Aquarius will not change anybody's mind about Aqua or Europop, but it stands as a high-water mark for the genre.© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

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