NEW YORK (AP) — To know where the R&B singer Mýa is headed in 2026, it is best to look backward. In 2003, she released her third studio album, “Moodring,” featuring the track “Sophisticated Lady.” It wasn’t a single, but it was noteworthy: a new take on Rick James’ “Cold-Blooded,” a swerve into funk music from a performer best known for midtempo slow jams. “I’ve given you all the baby-making music I can,” she joked to The Associated Press — and the James cover offered something a little different. It was another sonic direction she was waiting for the right moment to fully explore.Her tenth studio album, “Retrospect,” out Friday, threads the needle from then to now. It’s a collection of throwback bangers, weaving ’70s and ’80s Minneapolis funk, pop, R&B and soul in one cheerful, nostalgic package.“This is performance music, its personality music, so people get to see another part of my personality — very laid back, but I’m not there anymore,” she adds. “I’m outside and I’m having fun and really enjoying my life.”It’s also her first album in eight years.
The road to ‘Retrospect’During the pandemic, Mýa found herself returning to the music of her childhood for healing — the stuff that would play in the living room, on “Soul Train,” at the roller rink, at cookouts: Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, the S.O.S. Band, “Prince, Vanity 6, Teena Marie, Rick James, Evelyn “Champagne” King, Mary Jane Girls, Patrice Rushen. The list goes on and on,” she says. “That’s also a part of the title, ‘Retrospect.’ It’s not just retro leading into the ‘70s and ’80s. It’s about introspections as well.”Those influences are found everywhere: On the opener “Give It To You,” she borrows James’ inflections on the word “elated.” In the West Coast funk “Just a Little Bit,” featuring the Bay Area rapper Too $hort, an ad-lib recalls Michael Jackson’s “Remember the Time.” The “whoo!” at the top of “No Pressure” is all Teena Marie. The big ballad “Just Call My Name” pulls influence from Mýa’s mentor, Prince, with its “Purple Rain”-style guitars.
