For six long years Normani was the most overlooked member of Fifth Harmony, a so-so girl band fused together in 2012 on the forgotten US variant of The X Factor. When they split in 2018, she quickly became the pop connoisseurs’ choice for assumed solo breakout success, a decision supported by a string of subsequent collaborations with acts including Khalid, Sam Smith and Calvin Harris.
Dopamine, the bright pop of Motivation – a song Normani recently dismissed as “mid” and her label’s choice of single – has been replaced by an expertly curated deep dive into her passion for R&B. After years of placating other people’s musical whims, both in a band and as a solo star trying to make her mark, you sense she needed to draw a line in the sand – and if nothing else Dopamine feels like a statement of intent.
Dopamine understandably strives hard for perfection, but it can feel strangely anonymous at times – such as the way her yearning for a faraway love on Distance is suffocated by a polished sheen. But when Normani fully lets loose, as on the gyrating Grip, and the house-inflected Take My Time, there’s a real sense of that superstar everyone hoped to see back in 2018 finally taking centre stage on her own damn album.
