Skip to content
Search

Jamaican Singer Shenseea Glides Between Styles on ‘Never Gets Late Here’

Jamaican Singer Shenseea Glides Between Styles on ‘Never Gets Late Here’

As early as 2018 Jamaican superstar Shenseea was telling interviewers “By next year I want to be international, and when I say that, I don’t mean just as a dancehall artiste, but an international pop star.” Just last week Shenseea wondered aloud to Spotify if she should start classifying her sound as “dancehall pop” or “reggae pop.” Her second album, Never Gets Late Here, boldly continues on that long road to be the first Jamaican-born Main Pop Girl since Grace Jones and, thankfully, her attempts are mostly seamless. 

On the LP, which is executive produced by London on tha Track, Shenseea glides between genres, equally at home on a futuristic sound-system thumper like “Tap Out” as on the summery bubblegum dancehall of “Neva Neva.” She effortlessly bounds into to the Latin trap of “Red Flag” alongside Anitta and a percolating sample of Australian son revivalists San Lazaro. She gleams on the post-disco dreamer “Flava” alongside Coi Leray. She duets with fellow pop polyglot Wizkid on the steamy “Work Me Out.” The only time Never Gets Late feels like its trying too hard to pull off something is the gloopy power ballad “Stars” where producers Stargate sound like they are attempting to rekindle the fireworks from those Katy Perry and Rihanna smashes they made a decade ago.


Even before Never Gets Late Here, Shenseea had proven herself excellent at vacillating between toasting and singing, her last eight years teeming with dirty dancehall, EDM bangers and the occasional freestyle. But the fact that she can do it all is not what makes her a convincing pop star, its her adherence towards the type of sentiment bound to neither time or place. When she yearns for independence in “Hit & Run,” she recalls everything from Cyndi Lauper to Liz Phair to Doja Cat, sassily saying “A girl like me just want to have fun and more money.” Her “Na na na na” (“NaNa”) is part of a continuum from the girl groups to Gaga to, of course, Steam’s “Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye.”

Plus, she can boast with the best of them. Shenseea gives XXX-rated American rappers some competition with instantly memorable assertions like “If you can’t make me come then the sex don’t count”(“Die For You”) and “My AMEX is better than S-E-X” (“Dolla”). Even on her love songs (“Loyalty”), she can’t help but sing her own praises: “Fi me love no disappear when time harder/Only time you see me switch it up a inna genre.”

More Stories

Sabrina Carpenter Is Viscously Clever and Done With Love Triangles on ‘Short N’ Sweet’: 5 Takeaways

Sabrina Carpenter Is Viscously Clever and Done With Love Triangles on ‘Short N’ Sweet’: 5 Takeaways

After Sabrina Carpenter’s summer takeover with “Espresso” and “Please Please Please,” the anticipation for Short n’ Sweet was at an all-time high. On her sixth album, the pop singer keeps the surprises coming as she delivers a masterclass in clever songwriting and hops between R&B and folk-pop with ease. Carpenter writes about the frustration of modern-day romance, all the while cementing herself as a pop classic. Here’s everything we gathered from the new project.

Please Please Please Don’t Underestimate Her Humor

Carpenter gave us a glimpse of her humor on singles “Espresso” and “Please Please Please” — she’s working late because she’s a singer; ceiling fans are a pretty great invention! But no one could have guessed how downright hilarious she is on Short n’ Sweet, delivering sugary quips like “The Lord forgot my gay awakenin’” (“Slim Pickins”) and “How’s the weather in your mother’s basement?” (“Needless to Say”). She’s also adorably nerdy, fretting about grammar (“This boy doesn’t even know/The difference between ‘there,’ ‘their’ and ‘they are!’”) and getting Shakespearian (“Where art thou? Why not uponeth me?”). On “Juno,” she even takes a subject as serious as pregnancy and twists it into a charming pop culture reference for the ages: “If you love me right, then who knows?/I might let you make me Juno.” It’s official: Do not underestimate Ms. Carpenter’s pen. — A.M.

Keep ReadingShow less
RFK Jr. Suspends Campaign, Endorses Trump

RFK Jr. Suspends Campaign, Endorses Trump

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has suspended his 2024 presidential campaign, and according to a court filing in Pennsylvania on Friday will throw his weight behind former President Donald Trump.

Multiple news outlets reported on Wednesday that independent presidential candidate Robert Kennedy Jr. was planning to drop out of the race and endorse Trump. He clarified at an event in Arizona on Friday that he is not terminating his campaign, only suspending it, and that his name will remain on the ballot in non-battleground states. He said that if enough people still vote for him and Trump and Kamala Harris tie in the Electoral College, he could still wind up in the White House.

Keep ReadingShow less
The Chicks’ ‘Not Ready to Make Nice’ Has Somehow Become a MAGA Anthem on TikTok

The Chicks’ ‘Not Ready to Make Nice’ Has Somehow Become a MAGA Anthem on TikTok

One little funny/bizarre/horrifying thing about the internet is the way it offers up everything and, in doing so, makes it possible to strip anything of its history. But to paraphrase Kamala Harris, you didn’t just fall out of the coconut tree. “You exist in the context of all in which you live and what came before you” — wise words worth heeding, especially for all the Trump voters and conservatives making TikToks with the Chicks’ “Not Ready to Make Nice.”

Over the past month or so, “Not Ready to Make Nice” has become an unexpected MAGA anthem of sorts, meant to express a certain rage at liberals supposedly telling conservatives what to do all the time (the past few Supreme Court terms notwithstanding, apparently). Young women especially have taken the song as a way to push back against the possibility of Harris becoming the first female president. 

Keep ReadingShow less
Sabrina Carpenter, Myke Towers, Cash Cobain, and All the Songs You Need to Know This Week

Sabrina Carpenter, Myke Towers, Cash Cobain, and All the Songs You Need to Know This Week

Welcome to our weekly rundown of the best new music — featuring big new singles, key tracks from our favorite albums, and more. This week, Sabrina Carpenter delivers her long-awaited debut Short ‘n Sweet, Myke Towers switches lanes with the help of Peso Pluma, and Cash Cobain moves drill music forward with a crossover hit. Plus, new music from Lainey Wilson, Blink182, and Coldplay.

Sabrina Carpenter, ‘Taste” (YouTube)

Keep ReadingShow less
Hear Blink-182 Have Fun While Complaining They Have ‘No Fun’ on New Songs

Hear Blink-182 Have Fun While Complaining They Have ‘No Fun’ on New Songs

Ahead of the release of One More Time … Part-2, Blink-182 have released two new charging pop-punk songs, “All in My Head” and “No Fun.” The updated album will come out Sept. 6.

On “All in My Head,” Mark Hoppus sings about how hard touring life is staying in “lonely hotel rooms, cum stains on the couch.” But for as gross and sad as that reads, the song itself is pretty fun. Hoppus and Tom DeLonge trade vocals on the chorus: “I’m moving on, I’m better now, I sleep alone,” Hoppus sings, while DeLonge counters about how he’s not giving up despite feeling like he’s not good enough and how it hurts getting up. All that leads to an existential crisis, “I’m freaking out, is it all in my head?”

Keep ReadingShow less