TiaCorine: CORINIAN Album Review | Pitchfork

TiaCorine’s breakthrough single, “Lotto,” was a necessary evolution of the DIY Soundcloud era in 2018: whimsical, danceable, and unabashedly underground. Hearing it for the first time felt like crash landing on a new planet. Since then, the North Carolina rapper’s music and overall character has retained an otherworldly quality across a bevy of EP’s and a full-length debut that produced her first national hit and a salacious new nickname, “FreakyT.” Tia’s ever-growing grab bag of vocal effects, meandering flows, and subtle yet sudden shifts in sound has only become more potent as she’s expanded her universe.

Tia’s second studio album, CORINIAN, is less experimental than 2022’s I Can’t Wait. On that record, she flowed and sang over heavier production inspired by rock and electronic music, her rage seething under the surface of songs like “Rocket,” and “Rockstar.” With CORINIAN, Tia smoothes out those edges for a cleaner but still daring project that never slows down. “Buttercup,” produced by longtime collaborator Kenneth Blume (formerly known as Kenny Beats), has one of his best beats in years. It’s a fast-paced, bass-led head-nodder that could be the soundtrack to a Kill Bill spin-off. “Ironic,” and “Lotion,” with Flo Milli, are just as compelling, with “Lotion,” sounding like Tia’s attempt at making a horned-up early ’90s radio hit like “Ice Ice Baby,” or “U Can’t Touch This.”

The intergalactic bent of her early music is all over tracks like “Different Color Stones” and standout “Booty.” These dreamier moments highlight the unpredictability of her myriad flows, an ability to reinvent herself even when working with familiar building blocks inspired by DIY Atlanta luminaries like Father and his Awful Records crew. CORINIAN also aligns Tia with some of her biggest features to date, with mixed results. “High Demand” is a mostly forgettable attempt at a radio single with a phoned-in Smino verse. The Wiz Khalifa-assisted “Was Hannin” fares a little better, with Wiz referring to himself as an “industry plant” in one of his more clever recent weed puns.