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A Star(r) Comes of Age: Ayra Starr’s ‘The Year I Turned 21’ Scoffs at the Sophomore Slump (Critic’s Take)
The Grammy nominee harnesses her global reach to craft a remarkably vulnerable sophomore LP. Read Billboard's album review.
On the latter, a multi-lingual collaboration with fellow Grammy nominees Coco Jones and Anitta, Ayra delivers a women-empowerment anthem (“Tonight e be ladies night/ I no wan know your zodiac sign”) that sources its urgency and irresistibility from those pounding log drums. “21” is her de facto Adele moment, a reflective, sweeping ballad that’s punctuated with Rihanna-isms like the tongue-in-cheek, “At my grown ass age, damn.” “Orun,” the album’s best song, juxtaposes the jauntiness of highlife with soul-baring lyrics concerned with mental health and depression. When Ayra nails the seemingly endless riff on the last note of “Put in a good word for me” — a reference to her father speaking to God in Heaven – her voice swells not just with grief and loss, but also the catharsis that comes with accepting your circumstances and allowing them to build you into a stronger person.
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