Tyla and Baby Queen Chart Divergent Paths on Bold New Albums

Verdict: Two Promising Experiments, One Stronger Album

This review compares Tyla’s A*Pop album with Baby Queen’s I Hope You Don’t Remember Me, focusing on how each release pursues sonic reinvention and emotional vulnerability while testing the limits of modern pop expectations. From the first listen, it is clear these records are built for different kinds of listeners: Tyla leans hard into playlist-ready R&B flourishes and dancefloor bounce, while Baby Queen turns inward, using intimate songwriting and careful sequencing to shape a more cohesive emotional arc. A*Pop is an easy, sometimes frustratingly shallow listen that suits casual streaming sessions more than full-album immersion. By contrast, I Hope You Don’t Remember Me feels like a deliberate step forward, a structured heartbreak narrative that rewards listening from start to finish. For anyone deciding where to invest their time, Baby Queen delivers the stronger, more satisfying album experience.

Tyla’s A*Pop: Effortless R&B Pleasure with Shaky Foundations

A*Pop arrives weighted by the success of Water and Tyla’s debut, and you can hear the push to turn that momentum into something slick and broadly appealing. Early highlights hit the mark: Is It Love mixes bright power-ballad guitar with an easy-going chorus that sticks immediately, while Kiss raises the tempo into a high-energy Miami-style dancefloor sprint. Her vocal work remains the trump card; sultry, sensual, and confident, it slots neatly into both club bangers and slower, bedroom-ready tracks. Across the set, she touches nearly every familiar 21st-century R&B trope, which makes the record an effortless background listen rather than a demanding artistic statement. The quotable judgment from one review is blunt: “A*Pop hits practically every 21st Century R&B trope, which makes for an incredibly easy listen”. Whether that sounds like praise or faint damning depends on how adventurous you want your pop to be.

Where A*Pop Falters: Cash-Grab Energy and Thin Songwriting

The deeper you get into A*Pop, the more its weaknesses surface. Chanel aims for a hypnotic mellow zone but lands as lazy and grating instead, while That Girl and Feel Something blur into each other as interchangeable mid-tempo fillers that stall the album’s momentum. Many tracks cut off abruptly, ending without the melodic or structural ideas that would give them a satisfying resolution. That structural slackness feeds a wider suspicion: the record feels designed as a bundle of social media-friendly cuts rather than a cohesive body of work, more concerned with playlist placement and TikTok traction than with holding up under close listening. One critique goes further, noting that this tilt toward bite-sized content makes the album “smack of a cashgrab,” with the expectation of a deluxe edition to stretch its commercial life. If you want depth and narrative, A*Pop will likely leave you cold.

Baby Queen’s I Hope You Don’t Remember Me: Vulnerability with Structure

I Hope You Don’t Remember Me marks a clear shift for Baby Queen, moving away from the sharp social commentary that defined earlier work in favor of full-bodied heartbreak and self-exposure. Abigail sets the tone with dreamy piano, immediately framing the album as an emotional journey rather than a random set of tracks. Feel Something follows by lifting the mood, its layered instrumentation and sense of euphoria playing perfectly against her voice. Permanently Obsessed rides a funky new-wave groove that makes desire sound catchy and lived-in, while Word Vomit nods to earlier highlights with playful melody and a chant-like “I swallow my pride” refrain built for crowd singalongs. Crucially, interludes such as Minding the Explanatory Gap are not throwaways but connective tissue, flowing cleanly into the next song and underlining how carefully assembled the album is as a complete package.

Guitars, Jealousy, and a Whispered Climax: Why Baby Queen Wins

As the record progresses, Baby Queen widens her palette without losing focus. Spite shifts into sharper, relatable lyrics about jealousy and breakups, delivered with enough force to match the emotional charge. Tongue Tied adds a rocky breakdown, hinting at a more aggressive edge, but Bored Out of My Mind goes further as the most guitar-heavy moment, dragging booming drums and grittier vocals into the frame. This flirtation with rock textures gives the album dynamism that A*Pop’s more uniform R&B sheen lacks. The title track closes the sequence with a sense of rising tension that resolves into a gorgeous whisper, offering closure and sealing what feels like a clear high point in her catalog. One reviewer calls that finale “a new high for Baby Queen,” underscoring that this album is both an emotional risk and a creative win. For listeners who still care about albums as albums, she is the better bet.

Buy if / Skip if

• Buy the Tyla A*Pop album if you want an easy, playlist-friendly collection of R&B-leaning pop songs that work well in casual listening sessions.
• Skip the Tyla A*Pop album if you value cohesive storytelling and dislike records that feel tailored mainly for TikTok and streaming virality.
• Buy the Baby Queen new album I Hope You Don’t Remember Me if you are looking for a structured heartbreak narrative with versatile, emotionally honest songwriting.
• Skip the Baby Queen new album I Hope You Don’t Remember Me if you prefer detached social commentary over direct emotional vulnerability in your pop records.
• Buy the Tyla A*Pop album if standout tracks like Is It Love and Kiss are enough for you, even if the rest of the tracklist feels uneven.
• Skip the Tyla A*Pop album if talk of cashgrab energy and predicted deluxe extensions makes you wary of investing time in a front-loaded project.