Tyla - A*Pop

Tyla…makes her debut album again?

The singer’s 2024 self-titled first LP was a light, summery collection of danceable pop, R&B and Amapiano tracks that weren’t particularly groundbreaking or especially memorable, but fulfilled their function of being music to have a good time to, without thinking about it too deeply. And her sophomore LP, A*Pop, essentially circles back to tread those same tracks again – with some marginal improvements in certain areas, but no big steps in any direction.

There’s a wealth of moments throughout the record that have potential to be catchy, but few actually fully connect enough to stick, similar to a lot of tracks on Tyla. The main area of improvement when it comes to this record is the production – it feels more expansive and vivid than ever, contributing to an infectious atmosphere that the project keeps up from beginning to end. The instrumentals are mostly fairly similar in terms of their grooves, but some of them do have certain standout elements that distinguish them and make them stand out from the rest. 

Tyla’s vocal performances on the album are fairly strong; she doesn’t go for any astronomic heights, but her voice is silky-smooth as usual, gliding effortlessly over the beats with her signature charisma. The features also perform pretty admirably, complementing the tracks they’re on – the strongest probably being experienced South African duo Liquideep on “Fairytale”. The lyrics on the project are mostly fairly inconsequential – this album, like Tyla’s music in general, is much more targeted towards eliciting a specific feeling than telling stories. That strategy is quite effective – it’s easy to get lost in the album’s sound, and find yourself absentmindedly moving along to the rhythms.

The worst thing that can be said about this record is that it feels as though it was made largely to fit around its highlight singles. The four tracks – “Chanel”, “She Did It Again” featuring Zara Larsson, “Is It Love”, and “Is It”, which was already previously included on her 2025 EP WWP – are comfortably the best on the project, with its best hooks, most charming performances, and best production. The inclusion of the latter track is particularly confusing, seeing as the other three songs from WWP didn’t make this album. It almost feels as though Tyla and her team were searching for another big song to add on to the tracklist, and settled on that one.

Overall, A*Pop plays things extremely safe. It’s pretty much exactly what could’ve been expected from Tyla – and that works both for and against the album. On one hand, the positive qualities of the South African singer’s music – the groovy beats, the sunny production, the silky vocals and the upbeat atmosphere – are all still there, making it a fun listening experience in a vacuum; on the other, it feels somewhat uninspired, and in many instances like it’s rehashing what worked two years ago without much thought being put into anything more than that. It’s a decent enough project, but really not one that does too much to progress Tyla’s artistry.

6.0/10