Every couple of months, I come across an R&B record that completely knocks me off my feet. It’s usually experimental, a little bit out of left field and sung by a woman with the mythological voice of the sirens. Heaven sent.
This month, it happened to be a bouncy and creative record called “Raven” by Kelela. The sequencing and organization of this record are what really gets me. She comes out swinging with the first few tracks, with atmospheric synths driven forward by a delightful deep house influence. She has me feeling some motion, all while her lyrics simultaneously make me spiral into existential disarray.
What had me so enthralled about the sequencing of this record on my first couple of listens was what occurs in the middle section of the album.
After the eventful, rousing first few tracks, Kelela takes a musical tangent into the atmospheric and brooding realm of soul music–touching fingers with electronic production as if they were the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Yeah, that’s right, there are some Michelangelo-tier music moments going on.
The second track on this record, “Happy Endings,” nearly changed my brain chemistry. The melodies Kelela harvests and unleashes across this four-minute, ever-developing beat is something to be studied.
She sings from her heart about the torment and anxiety that comes with a relationship for her; the confusion, derealization and feeling of impending, formative doom.
Kelela decided to go insanely hard on the four-track run in the middle section of this record, stretching from “Holier” to “Sorbet.” There are so many elements of soul and house music that are brought into this record; they not only work together remarkably well, but they transition between tracks seamlessly.
The synth line from the title track, “Raven,” is applied and tweaked a few different times throughout the record, giving everything a sense of compatibility and providing the album with a sonically conceptual feeling.
“Closure,” is a special track on this album, featuring Kelela’s captivating voice over an echoey trap beat. The production is really jaw-dropping on this album and will keep you in a chokehold until you find yourself at the final moments of the record, when you inevitably decide to play it again.
Unlike 2022, it has been a slow year for music so far, which makes records like Kelela’s Raven such an important, standout piece of work. Every time I write this column, it’s because I’m in awe of some recent musical accomplishment that I must praise. I invite you all to listen to this new Kelela record and let her artistic vision distract you from your problems.
There is a sense of clarity within these songs that breathes life into you as you listen and navigate your way through this record.
Kelela closes out her incredible new record with the track, “Far Away,” a spacey, ethereal track to guide this project into its peaceful closure. Her voice dances along to this song, with its elongated synths and spacious, rattling, high hats.
This track ties together all of the various sounds and downtrodden observations on love, which Kelela sang throughout the album in a very peaceful and reserved way, letting the listener know that Kelela has spoken both her, and our, collective peace into existence.
Other records to check out this week:
– “Spiridion”
– “Starker”
– “Stay A While”
– “The Cactus Channel “
– “The Dead Don’t Die”
– “Ankhlejohn”
My Favorite Songs this Week:
– “65th & Ingleside” by Chance the Rapper
– “Raven” by Kelela
– “You’re Lying” by Sandra Cross
