Tkay Maidza’s three-part Last Year Was Weird EP series was a hairpin turn for an artist looking for a new direction. Moving on from stadium-ready EDM-pop-rap, the Australian musician flaunted a more eclectic range while giving herself space to own the mess of being in the spotlight. She dove into lush digital funk, explosive SOPHIE-style bangers, and cheeky hip-hop with the unrestrained zeal of a kid in a ball pit while also sharpening her confidence. One second she’d be slithering through chest-thumping industrial hip-hop; the next, she’d be cooing over jaunty guitars and whistles.
Sweet Justice, Maidza’s sophomore album and her first full-length in seven years, expands on that growing musical confidence, the whiplash between funk, dance, and industrial styles more intense than ever. With fiery lyrics and sharper bravado, it’s an album largely about karma: “Eat your heart out on a silver plate/They been fishy so I’m eating steak/On the hook I catch ‘em with the bait/Get up out my face is si vous plait,” she boasts on “WUACV,” named after the meme used when someone’s feeling particularly chaotic. She’s flippant toward her detractors, thoughtful as she navigates life and love. Sweet and sing-songy on highlight “Out of Luck,” she asserts her self-worth against people who demand her time but couldn’t give two shits about her. Generally, Maidza’s vision of justice isn’t based in direct retribution—she knows that choosing herself over the bullshit is the best revenge. “I should buy my bag a bag,” she says, an elite and hilarious flex.
This time producer Dan Farber, who had a heavy hand in the sound of the Weird EPs, cedes space to bigger names, who bring grandeur to her songs. Take the Flume-assisted “Silent Assassin,” which turns sirens, 808s, and video game sound effects into a laser tag field for Maidza to charge at haters. Or the Kaytranada-produced “Our Way,” a smooth dance funk number where Maidza demands a lover to step their game: “Never needed all them roses/I just wanna know I’m chosen.” Like her idols Missy Elliott and Santigold, she can bend her airy voice to any beat, and that’s half the fun.
With Sweet Justice, Maidza is walking the path of artists like Tinashe, who had an easier time finding themselves the further away from the mainstream machine they got. And despite a few stumbles—”WASP” and closing track “Walking On Air” are the album’s most generic offerings—her frenetic fire-and-ice routine is impressive. She’s grown up without losing her freshness, refining the skill and intensity that got her here in the first place. This is the swagger and range that’s appealed her to artists from Billie Eilish to Kari Faux: Maidza makes the act of taking what’s yours sound like a multicolored daydream.
