Kelela — Raven
Six years on from her debut album, Kelela returns to provide her soulful voice over smooth R&B, electronic and dance inspired production. Though a good album as a whole, it’s hard to say if the blend of R&B and Rave music fit well together.
Kelela
With a decade of work under her belt, Kelela has become one of the most highly regarded R&B singers of her generation. Gaining critical acclaim with her Cut 4 Me mixtape and her Hallucinogen EP, her 2017 debut album Take Me Apart continued her precedented run. Six years on from her debut, it has led to fans fiending for more and her follow up Raven will surely not let her fans down. Her electronic inspired songs are a fitting ode to the Rave culture, LSDXOXO and Bambii have laced Kelela with fantastic breakbeat inspired production to fit with her vocals. “Happy Ending” and “Contact” are singles from the album, and are amongst some of the best tracks off the album.
The first half of the album is much more inferior, as the album starts with Kelela’s beautiful vocals, on “Washed Away”. It’s a great intro to the album, with the vocals and the production the song sounds heaven scent. My personal favourite song off the album is “Missed Call”, again LSDXOXO and Bambii team up and provide Kelela a fantastic electronic instrumental that will get anyone on their feet and head to the dance floor.
Even though I do enjoy the first half of the album more, as most of my favourite songs off the album are within the first half, that’s not to say the second half doesn’t have its highlights. The eleventh track “Bruises” seems to touch upon a relationship that is falling apart, with the lyrics “Push me when I’m down, I’m leaving, but you hound me”. Unlike the instrumentals mentioned earlier, the production for “Bruises” may be upbeat, however it’s darker in order to sit with the content of the lyrics. Especially when compared to a track like “Happy Ending”, as that touches upon Kelela persuading her love interest to stay and pursue something with her.
As the album blends both upbeat electronic and relaxed R&B instrumentals, I do find the mix of the two production forms odd at times. The production of LSDXOXO and Bambii’s rave inspired production is both so rich and trippy that it can seem to overshadow the more stripped back production, for example with “Holier” and “Sorbet”. After hearing tracks like “Missed Call” and “Contact”, where it sounds more joyful and it makes you want to dance, it can all come to an unpleasant screeching halt with tracks such as “Fooley”. I would go as far as to say that the electronic inspired tracks outshine records such as “Holier” and “Fooley”.
On the other hand, the album finishes strongly with the last couple of records. “Enough for Love” is one of the best R&B tracks off the album, and we finish with how we started off with the last track “Far Away”. Sonically similar to the intro, it appropriately brings the album back around.
In the end, Kelela’s new LP is a bold return to music. Her vocal performances are pleasant and though I sonically wasn’t into some of the songs mentioned prior, the majority of the album is also well produced. Overall a good album.