EP Review Tkay Maidza - Last Year Was Weird Vol. 3

Tkay Maidza returns with the third instalment of her ‘Last Year Was Weird’ EP series - a title that feels, if anything, like a dramatic understatement. Luckily, the eight tracks contained within aren’t meditations on life in lockdown, or anti-mask anthems à la Van Morrison - no, these songs look forward to a life post-Covid. There are moments here that feel almost aggressively summery, that make you look out of the window and long for the limbo to edge by just slightly quicker. Tkay covers an incredible amount of ground, veering from a whisper to a scream in the course of a single song, but convinces no matter what she’s turning her hand to. From the irresistible R&B of ‘Onto Me’, to the verging-on-bubblegum-pop of ‘So Cold’, you get the sense that she’s just flexing her muscles - she never feels stretched beyond her comfort zone. There are two features, with Yung Baby Tate’s turn on ‘Kim’ a particular highlight, but there’s no questioning that this is the Tkay Maidza show. She closes the EP with the longing, vulnerable ‘Breathe’, asking us to “just stay here” - and by the end of ‘Last Year Was Weird Vol. 3’, we’re happy to oblige.