Joyride (Tinashe)

Joyride
Information
Released	April 13, 2018
Recorded	2015–2017
Genre	R&B
Length	36:51
Label	RCA

Joyride is Tinashe's second studio album which was released on April 13, 2018 by RCA Records.

Tracklisting

1. Keep Your Eyes On The Road (Intro) 1:10
2. Joyride 3:25
3. No Drama 3:20
4. He Don't Want It 2:52
5. Ooh La La 3:16
6. Me So Bad 3:09
7. Ain't Good For Ya (Interlude) 1:04
8. Stuck With Me 3:26
9. Go Easy On Me (Interlude) 0:31
10. Salt 3:49
11. Faded Love 3:23
12. No Contest 3:47
13. Fires And Flames 3:47

Album Background

On September 2, 2015, Tinashe released a teaser for "Joyride" on YouTube. She explained to Billboard the meaning behind the title: "I always had it in the back of my head, but it started to become more and more relevant to my current state of my career. With all this traveling I've done this past year and everything I've gone through, it just really feels like an adventure, a journey, a ride."

On September 9, 2015, she leaked the buzz single called "Party Favors" featuring rapper Young Thug as a way to get the ball rolling from her label.

On October 2, 2015, Tinashe released another song "Player", featuring Chris Brown, as the first intended lead single of the album. On October 21, 2015, she was featured on British electronic duo Snakeships' track "All My Friends" which reached the top 20 in five countries.

A few weeks later, on November 17, 2015, Tinashe held a breakfast listening event party for Joyride at the Sony Club in New York City, which was attended by reporters and other members of the music industry. At this event, she shared at least one song that still wound up on the final version of Joyride: the album closer, "Fires and Flames."

Two other songs played that day: "Fearless" and the Max Martin-produced "Prisoner" have not been released.

After a few months without releasing any new music, Tinashe released a new intended lead single for the project, entitled "Superlove."

The song was released on July 15, 2016 and the music video, directed by Hannah Lux Davis, debuted on August 12, 2016 on MTV's Snapchat to rave reviews. The video on YouTube reached one million views in just a day and a half.

On September 15, 2016, with a MTV Wonderland performance, Tinashe dropped "Company" as the album's intended second single; however, this turned out to be the first and only single off her 2016 digital album "Nightride."

Perhaps conceived of as a holdover until Joyride was ready to be released, Nightride featured many of the songs that were supposed to be on the original Joyride project, including "Sacrifices," "Soul Glitch," "Ghetto Boy," and "Touch Pass" (which she initially premiered at Joyride's November 2015 listening party and performed on the Joyride World Tour in early 2016).

The promotional singles "Ride of Your Life" and "Party Favors" (without Young Thug) were both ultimately placed on Nightride.

On March 16, 2017, Tinashe released yet another intended lead single for Joyride, which was also initially premiered at "Joyride"'s November 2015 listening party: "Flame".

In a March 30, 2018 interview, Tinashe claimed that the release of "Flame" as a lead single was her record label's idea: "I wasn’t forced, but it was one of these situations where it was like 'Okay, I will trust you guys and this is what you believe is the best decision so I’m going to get behind it,' because that’s more advantageous than to sabotage my own songs... And when that wasn’t necessarily successful, I realized that it was my turn to get back into the driver’s seat as far as curating every move I made from there on out."

After continuing to work on the album through the summer of 2017, Tinashe announced the release of three new singles from the album on January 12, 2018.

"No Drama" featuring Offset was released as the first single on January 18, 2018, with an accompanied music video directed by Sasha Samsonova.

"Faded Love" featuring Future was released the following month, on February 12, 2018. A vertical video was released via Spotify on February 16, and on YouTube three days later.

On March 16, 2018, Tinashe finally revealed the "Joyride" artwork on her Instagram and announced the album would be released on April 13, 2018.

On March 30, 2018, the third single "Me So Bad", featuring Ty Dolla Sign and French Montana, was released along with a Sahsa Samsonova-directed music video. With this release came the digital pre-order for the album.

On April 25, 2018 Joyride was released in Japan which includes the first three original intended singles "Player", "Superlove", and "Flame".

A new version of "Player" featuring AK-69 replacing Chris Brown's verse is the version present on the Japanese Version of Joyride as well as the exclusive track "L-O-V-E".

Recording\Composition

The writing and recording for "Joyride" went through several phases.

In late January 2015, Tinashe was reported working with writers and producers from Prescription Songs (Cirkut, Ammo, Rock City, Jakob Kasher, Chloe Angelides), Max Martin and Taylor Parks on her upcoming second studio album.

After months of silence after the release of the album's latest lead single "Flame," Tinashe on July 11, 2017, confirmed that she was still working on her new album with producers Mike Will Made It, TM88, Metro Boomin, Diplo, Boi-1da, Charlie Handsome and others.

In an April 5, 2018 article in Vulture, Tinashe stated: "Once I brought in producers and writers, we were in there every day being creative... We set the vibe, had Taco Tuesday parties. That was a huge turning point for me. Once that summer happened, I regained a huge sense of confidence and purpose: Okay, I’m doing this. I really made this happen. I’m gonna make my best music ever. That’s what we did."

In this Vulture article, she admitted that "three [different] versions of this album exist" and that there "are probably 200 songs" total that were recorded over the course of a three-year period.

Chart Performance

"Joyride" debuted at #58 on the Billboard 200 for the week of April 28, 2018, selling 9,800 album-equivalent units in its first week, of which 4,710 came from pure sales.

It also debuted at #12 on Billboard's Digital Album Sales chart that same week, a chart that ranks the top 50 of pure albums sales that week.

The album sales are a decrease in what was originally predicted, being originally predicted to sell 15,000–20,000 album-equivalent units, with 5,000–7,000 being pure sales. It also peaked at #29 on the US Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart.

"Joyride" debuted at #55 on the Canadian Albums Chart, becoming Tinashe's first album to make the chart.

The album achieved similar success internationally, reaching #78 on the UK Albums Chart, making it her first album to chart since 2014's Aquarius, reaching the same peak as "Aquarius."

In Australia, the album performed similarly, reaching number 76 on the ARIA Charts. On the Dutch Albums chart, it peaked at #103, becoming Tinashe's first album to make the chart.

Critical Reception

"Joyride" received generally positive reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, the album has an average score of 66 based on thirteen reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Israel Daramola of Spin wrote in a positive review that the album is "a cool and sexy record," and "well-crafted and ambitious."

For Exclaim!, Ryan B. Patrick scored the album a 7 out of 10, stating that "Joyride is a stop-start journey that doesn't quite stall out, but does feel like some ground has been lost."

Andy Kellman of AllMusic awarded the album 3.5 out of 5 stars, stating "the highlights are filled with rich details and seductive hooks", along with stating that "the songs "Salt", and "Fires and Flames", invalidate all the claims that Tinashe is one-dimensional."

Zoë Madonna of The Boston Globe stated "the most fascinating offerings on Joyride are that the singer recorded herself in her home studio", and that "in these tracks, she touches something stellar."

In another positive review of the album, Hannah Mylrea of NME gave the album 4 out 5 stars, calling it "brilliantly good fun", and calling it "mainly worth the 2 year wait."

In a mixed review of the album, Ben Devlin of musicOMH gave the album 2.5 out of 5 stars, stating that "the intro and hard-edged title track create a sense of concept," however that "it is discarded for the song "No Drama"," and that "a sense of cohesion never quite returns to the album."

In another mixed review of the album, Roisin O'Connor of The Independent awarded the album 3 out of 5 stars, saying "Joyride has its shining points, and attempts to remain true to a cohesive, moodier tone," however that "it's missing the strong, catchier elements that helped Tinashe rise in the first place."