On ‘Retrospect,’ Mýa Goes Back to Propel Into the Future
Mýa transports fans from their earphones to the block party on the disco funk and synth-pop direction of her new LP, Retrospect.
Ten studio albums into her career, spanning three decades, the Grammy winner has been the soundtrack to late ‘90s pubescent school crushes into the 2000s, when she entered maturation on the audacious Fear of Flying, followed by her mercurial third effort, Moodring. By the late aughts, Mýa found independence and developed her own label imprint, Planet 9, which presents Retrospect, the singer’s first full-length foray into throwback funk and ‘80s-inspired soul.
“A lot of the time, I'm delivered mid-tempo music that doesn't allow me to do one of the things that I do best, which is light up a dance floor,” Mýa tells BET. “So we're bringing the fire on this project and you can either put a two-step to it or glide on skates or ride in your car with the top down.”
Mýa embodies the party starter on Retrospect, tapping the legendary DJ D-Nice across the groovy guitar pluckings of roller rink jam “Give It to You.” While homaging Minneapolis funk and the stylizations of ‘70s R&B progenitors Rick James, Teena Marie, Mary Jane Girls, Patrice Rushen, and The Gap Band, the vocalist also takes it to the West Coast, tapping Snoop Dogg (“No Pressure”) and Too $hort (“Just a Little Bit”), while the 13-track album is executive produced by LA-born producer MyGuyMars. Songs like “Saturday Night” and “Ain’t Another Me” drift with beatitude, but just as Mýa primps herself as a showstopper, she also finds introspection on the album’s latter, ballad-filled half–a perfect balance for the Libra.
“Those are the types of lyrics that move me, the compositions that move me, the baselines that get me dancing on the floor,” Mýa recalls. “But another thing are core memories, the block parties, the house parties, the time [when] everyone didn't have a cell phone. The moments of joy and simplicity.”
The idea for Retrospect came to Mýa in 2020, when she and MyGuyMars decided to follow a joyful sound amid a global climate in disarray, but pivots kept occurring. Although Retrospect became a body of work by 2021, the album began the process of mixing when Mýa’s engineer was tragically impacted by a heart attack. Features, including 21 Savage, Phil Adé, Joyner Lucas, and Dizzy Wright, needed to be cleared amid Mýa's occasional touring, the most recent being Brandy and Monica’s The Boy Is Mine Tour. Roughly six years later, Retrospect is wrapped and packaged in surround sound spatial audio to enhance the listening experience, bringing a timeless quality to the new era of Mýa.
“There are no limits when it comes to real music and we categorize things all the time because now we have charts, systems and measurements,” Mýa says. “I’ve sat down with some amazing iconic legendary artists and they have no ceilings. And that's the path I will be following.”
The retro tonalities of Mýa’s new LP seem to reference her 2003 album, Moodring, where the singer interpolated 1983 Rick James classic “Cold Blooded” on track “Sophisticated Lady.” While contemporary artists like Lucky Daye, Victoria Monét, Silk Sonic and Durand Bernarr have flexed their chops over ‘70s-inspired sonics, Mýa wishes she was given the ability to further homage the golden era of funk in her earlier music.
“I was signed to a major label [Interscope] that was just trying to figure out what R&B was. So, adding funk was a little foreign at that time and other genres that I played with, but I got to really flex my executive producer muscle on that project,” Mýa recalls.
“I played with it, but I didn't commit fully to it because I was also sort of within the expectation of pop and R&B, which was digestible for them,” she continues. “Even though they still were kind of soft pedaling the investment because that wasn't their area of expertise.”
While the majority of Moodring played in lush R&B soundscapes, because Mýa was experiencing different subcultures at the time, she also recorded a memorable ballroom song, “Whatever Bitch,” and exhibited her musical dimensions. Mýa's exploration of another side of herself reflected the singer following her own volition, just as she does on Retrospect.
“I was in my 20s, I had my own place for the very first time. I understood the fundamentals of songwriting,” she shares. “I was able to executive produce that project whereas the other projects were executive produced by others. I was coming out of my shell. It was a huge jump from Fear of Flying.”
Pop and R&B forebearer Prince, who Mýa counts as a pivotal mentor, also pushed the vocalist to trust her instincts and be attentive to how the industry landscape was changing. “There [are] other ways was a big staple of what he would share. The traditional way is folding. We're going into a new world,” she recalls.
“But he was also spiritual. So there were so many gems that he shared for the next generation. He would gather us up and pour wisdom in enlightening conversations, so that hopefully we could make a difference in this world with elevated intention.”
Mýa sonically honors Prince on the Retrospect cut “Just Call My Name,” which directly nods to the late musician’s statement hit “Purple Rain” through its nostalgic guitar inflection, tuning, and inflection. Just as millennial R&B fans yearn for rich ballads with complete bridges, vamps, and adlibs, Mýa wants music to return to its unprocessed roots, which Retrospect demonstrates.
“I think music listeners are longing for feeling and connection, and we can connect in so many different ways with so many different genres,” she says. “Now you have everything readily available to you at the click of a button. I think there's something special, however, about going back in time when things were so raw, so real, so different, so present.”
While Mýa looks to music of the past on Retrospect, she’s also up-to-date of the current pulse of R&B, counting fellow independent artists Tinashe, Normani, Kehlani, Teyana Taylor, SZA, Victoria Monét, and Tone Stith as acts who have paved their own lanes in the genre. While handling her career both in front of and behind the scenes, Mýa admittedly feels accountable for guiding R&B’s new generation, much like Prince’s mentorship.
“It is completely different than what I was maybe doing solely as just the artist, but I would never change anything because now I'm empowered, I'm knowledgeable, I'm very versatile or well-versed in so many different skill sets,” she says. “So I know that this is preparation for something else outside of just me, and it probably has to do with empowering others and protecting others, especially our young girls coming up in this industry.”
For now, Mýa has her focus on rerouting R&B to the music of her youth by capturing its undeniability. “I think we miss the higher frequency more so than anything else,” Mýa explains. “While there is a lot of low vibrational stuff being promoted right now, we just need balance, and I think that's why we gravitate by going back to those beautiful, simpler, more happy times.”
Listen to the album below:
