Starrah - The Longest Interlude (2021)

To know contemporary pop music is to know the work of Starrah. The Delaware-hailing singer-songwriter has, in just a few short years, amassed a list of writing credits that includes hits by Beyoncé, Rihanna, The Weeknd, Nicki Minaj, and Drake, among others. For her most extensive project yet, The Longest Interlude, the follow-up to 2017’s Starrah X Diplo, the conspicuously private creative steps out from behind the curtain to claim some of the adoration she’s lent to so many others.

Starrah can both rap and sing, but The Longest Interlude is built on melody, most of which is steeped in romantic longing and all of which is spun through various levels of Auto-Tune. Over the course of a fruitful writing career, the singer has proved that she can find a pocket in just about any sort of production, but the writing itself shines that much brighter against the minimalistic production of songs like “Made for You” and “Home Alone.” She’s sentimental on songs like “Make Time,” “Forever,” and “Distance and Time,” but the gentle electro-funk “Love Mania” assures us that her romantic endeavors have indeed provided more than heartache. It is tempting to wonder how Starrah’s more visible collaborators might have interpreted these songs, but we have to believe we’re hearing them the way they were meant to sound.