Naming your record ‘Popstar’ is a bold statement, but not one Tinashe hasn’t earned: the singer’s catalogue is packed with hits and successful collaborations, but it’s her newest project that’s really going down a treat with fans and critics alike. Her eighth studio album is trying its hand at a little bit of everything, and pulling the vast majority of it off— scattershot as they may be, the results might just leave you starstruck.

This is a dance-pop record, at least primarily, but where each songs falls on the spectrum between those two genres is a complete roll of the dice: ‘Popstar’ isn’t an album that feels content to sit still, packing a whopping 16 tracks into its compact 39-minute runtime. Tinashe is trying her hand at a vast array of sounds, varying wildly between the reckless club music of ‘Melatonin’ and the acoustic balladry of closer ‘Heavy Weight’ without losing momentum for even a second. The record is a dizzying experience, and one that seeks to be in constant motion— the singer manages to dip into the eccentric personality of Beyoncé as easily as she pulls off the crazed electronica of Slayyyter on the title track and ‘Brain Rot’ respectively, and those songs come back-to-back! The fun you’ll have here stems primarily from how ’Popstar’ revels in its own restlessness.

As thrilling as this turbulent structure is, it does force Tinashe to wear quite a few hats, some of which suit her better than others. ‘Popstar’ is a tour-de-force as far as melodic instincts are concerned, handing out memorable choruses and instantly-iconic refrains like Oprah gives out cars. ‘I’d Rather Be Alone’ is a fairly straightforward cut as far as this album is concerned, but the singer absolutely nails this tried-and-true R&B style both in writing and on the mic— it’s on songs like ‘Empty Stadium’ and the title track, where Tinashe explores her relationship with fame and fortune, that the project truly finds some thematic meat to chew on. As far as the ‘pop’ in ‘Popstar’ is concerned, she’s hitting it straight out of the park on a hazy number like opener ‘Sunglasses.’

That’s not to say that the album isn’t also full of exhilarating electronic twists, don’t get us wrong: single ‘Melatonin’ is proof enough that Tinashe can dominate a nightclub, collecting vocal samples and wicked synth lines in an arrangement that manages to feel like the remix of another, equally enjoyable tune. The unfortunate byproduct of these dance breaks is simply that ‘Popstar’ ends up leaving you with whiplash whenever it decides to flex its creative muscle— there isn’t quite enough collective tissue between the effortless confidence of ‘Too Easy’ and the distant R&B of ‘Flashbacks,’ and that’s not even mentioning the extreme brevity of brass-filled interlude ’Overdramatic.’ Oftentimes, Tinashe has us wishing she’d kick off the dancing shoes and develop a few of these tracks a little further when her frenetic approach to songwriting leads to the monotonous ‘Cloud 9’ and the forgettable ‘Twentyfive Eight.’

But c’mon, who really cares when this tracklist is home to so many gems? ‘Popstar’ flaunts its own exuberance on ‘Nobody Wanna Dance Anymore’ and ‘Crash Out,’ two songs that have the kick drum amped up so high it’s practically peaking the mix— Tinashe isn’t out to blow your speakers like Slayyyter was earlier this year, but there really is no denying the effectiveness of these arrangements. The singer herself is able to adapt effortlessly to these high-energy numbers, as the absolute winner that is ‘Melatonin’ shows beyond a shadow of a doubt. When all is said and done, it’s actually the softness of ‘Heavy Weight’ that becomes an outlier in this blur of a record, acting as a much-needed moment to breathe. When you’re in the thick of it on ‘Popstar,’ yet more vibrant songwriting is never far.

Tinashe’s latest effort isn’t built on the sturdiest foundation, but every piece of it is so individually brilliant that it hardly matters: there are just too many excellent tracks on offer here to turn your nose up at. From soulful R&B to racing EDM, the singer has proven that she can absolutely do it all with this one. Maybe she is a ‘Popstar’ after all.