Meghan Trainor might be all about that bass, but she isn’t all about consistency quite yet. This major-label debut, billed as her first album after Sony effectively eviscerated all traces of her three prior independent releases, cranks out saccharine doo-wop ditties and poppy hip-hop. Trainor sticks to the kinds of flourishes heard on her breakout single All About That Bass: finger-clicks, tight three-part harmonies and stabs of (programmed) horns. But contradictions arise in her account of life as a woman in her 20s. She wants to revel in a “walkashame”, but begs passersby not to judge her. On Title, she wants to be treated “like a trophy on a shelf”, threatening to withhold sex until an unnamed man calls her his girlfriend. Trainor has insisted she isn’t a feminist, and this album is a testament to that. Come for catchy hooks sung in an affected southern accent, not for insightful and, intimate songwriting.
