Kali Uchis — Red Moon In Venus
Kali Uchis returns with her third album exploring topics and themes of love, heartbreak and growth. Though it has some good spots, Kali’s third album fails to hit the mark when compared to her debut album.
Since her 2018 debut album, Isolation, Kali Uchis has been one of the most unique artists in the Pop and R&B world. Blending both English and Spanish, Kali has showcased a great ability to write and perform fantastic and memorable Pop records. This is also shown on her latest full length project, as she takes the listener through a journey of emotions from love, heartbreak to growth.
Vocally Kali has really great moments, tracks such as “I Wish You Roses” and “Moral Conscience” showcase Kali's beautiful soulful voice. “I Wish You Roses” is the first song off the album and is centred around moving on from a loved one, more likely a former partner. Along with vocally sounding great, her song writing is also really impressive, even with just one verse on the song. My favourite lines being “I was a rose in a garden of weeds” and “My love's deep as the ocean, don't you drown on me, just know, any love I gave you is forever yours to keep”. Along with “I Wish You Roses”, the beginning of the album is really great with tracks such as “Worth the Wait” and “Love Between”. The former features singer Omar Apollo, who is easily the best feature on the whole album as he vocally provides a helping hand on the chorus. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for the other features.
Kali’s first album consisted of great features, from the likes of Tyler, the Creator, Jorja Smith and Steve Lacy. On the other hand, besides Omar Apollo the features on this project let Kali down. There are instances where she completely outshines the feature, to the point where you wish the feature just wasn’t there. This is seen with the likes of Don Toliver, on “Fantasy”. A duet between the two, they express their love for one another. Kali’s vocals fit perfectly with Jahaan Sweet’s and P2J’s production; it’s one of her best vocal performances on the album, however it’s disrupted by Don Toliver. I don’t think he’s particularly bad or terrible, however he just doesn’t complement what Kali is doing on the song. I find it pointless having him on the song. Another feature that lets Kali down is Summer Walker, on the track “Deserve Me”. Summer Walker has delivered features I have enjoyed before, for instance her vocals on Kendrick Lamar’s “Purple Hearts”. Unfortunately, I can’t say the same for her on this project. At first I was struggling to find a reason as to why, but I actually believe it’s purely because Kali is just vocally better and sounds smoother than her.
I think the album does also suffer from some filler and records that sound similar to each other, for example the “Not Too Late” interlude and the last track “Happy Now”. It’s not that the songs are bad, however they can become forgettable and they can come across as background music. This of course isn’t the case with the whole album and there are still more highlights within the album. Another personal favourite of mine is “Moonlight”, I’ve mentioned that Kali is great with blending both English and Spanish, and “Moonlight” is a great example of this. The ninth track “Endlessly”, features production from Toneworld and legendary producer Dark Child, and the two provide Kali the best instrumental on the whole album.
Though there are great moments and songs on Red Moon In Venus, Kali’s third album does fall short for me. It fails to surpass the greatness of her first album nor even reach the same level. With the issue that I had with some of the features, I would love to hear an album from Kali with no features, just her. Kali is still one of the best and most exciting R&B acts out right now, and I hope her next album is an improvement and doesn’t include the faults that I heard with this album.