When Fifth Harmony went on permanent hiatus in 2018, it was pretty clear that the first of the band’s members to race out of the traps towards solo stardom would be Camila Cabello, who had quit two years earlier. Four albums later, she has solidified her place in the pop firmament, while at the other end of the scale ‘Dopamine’ is bandmate Normani's long-awaited debut.
This is not to say the singer, hailing from Atlanta, Georgia, has been twiddling her thumbs. Outside of wildly popular collabs with Sam Smith and Khalid, Normani has released the occasional single, meaning that ‘Dopamine’ is presented as ripe — a work of artistry and deliberation from a creator who would only put it out when it was ready.
Duly, there are some truly excellent R&B turns here. Among them, Candy Paint is a clicky, thumping dancefloor filler with magnetic lyrical phrasing and nimble AutoTuned flourishes.
Elsewhere, 1.59 (not the track's length) is a lascivious slow jam clearly aimed at being an end of the night club song, ushering partygoers out the door.
But, despite excellent phrasing from Normani and her collaborator, Gunna, the AutoTune here is less successful, making the track feel synthetic and crude.
There is also Wild Side, originally released in 2021. This is a slow and sexy groover that weaves and jinks until rap bars burst through the sensitivity in a hail of smut from Cardi B. This is a strange one — while Cardi is far from a flash in the pan, she does feel like an artist who has already been bumped by the next big things. Hearing this music represented as something new feels oddly out of touch.
Zooming out, though, ‘Dopamine’ works well as a whole piece. It’s carefully conceived, immaculately polished and expertly delivered by the talent on show. But it might have arrived a little too late to really feel like something urgent and current. A lot of pop music’s intrinsic value is in the buzz it creates and it doesn’t command your attention or demand to be heard. Normani is an artist who — despite the delay — is yet to find that particular voice.
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