CKay is at a crossroads. Setting aside his penchant for slow-burning love overtures, the singer dedicates the first seven songs of his third album, BANGER BOY, to rhythm and spectacle, and its final five to matters of the heart. But where is his mind actually? On hitmaking, of course. The singer’s hooks across the project are fulcrumed on one- and two-syllable refrains, repeated until they become less words than melodic instruments. On “SHEGE”,—a Hausa word meaning trouble in its most common use—he forms a trance-inducing call-and-response groove. From “NDA” through “PPOWER,” the singer draws on Afropop, amapiano, gqom, reggaetón and dancehall, doling out hooks he repeats until they become percussion. But even the lit-est of nights must end. The last third of the album steps away from the dance floor. “I want to drive you crazy/I don’t mind if we crash,” he admits on “SEXY” where a plinking piano loop serves as undertow to the dembow percussion, and guest Maleek Berry shows out in English, Igbo and pidgin. “Zero excuses, no compromise,” CKay promises on “E CLEAR”, his undying dedication to a lover supported by percussion reminiscent of Soca. But the life of a superstar gets to be complicated quickly. “I cheat and you cheat back,” he declares on album closer “BYE BYE”, a breakup song that stops just short of despair. He’s leaving a lover behind, ignoring her calls less out of disregard than of self-preservation. And as it always must, a hero’s journey starts anew.