Search Results for:

KELELA

Kelela

New Avatar

“My origin story as a songwriter and artist set the context for the catharsis I experienced while making 'New Avatar'. I wrote my very first songs in a punk house. The indie scene I was part of provided me with an outlet for genre-defying experiments that illuminated intersections I was hearing in my head. We didn’t spend tons of time on songs cuz the kids in that scene didn’t care about nailing it. It was (lowkey) about messing up, giving 0 fucks and dismantling the need to be perfect in the first place. It took the pressure off and allowed my first vision of myself to blossom. I used a similar approach with this body of work - moving through with a lot of intention while capturing the freedom and spontaneity that inspired my inception as an artist.

What you’re getting with this album is another facet of my world expressed with a new level of conviction, sometimes in the form of love+devotion and other times in the form of rage.” - Kelela

TRACK LISTING

1. Idea 1
2. Point Blank
3. Goin Down
4. Outta Time (feat. A. K. Paul)
5. Against Me
6. Crystalize
7. Retaliation Lullaby
8. Linknb
9. Don't Piss Me Off
10. New Life Forms (feat. Fousheé)
11. The Bridge (feat. PinkPantheress)
12. If We Meet Again

Kelela

Raven

Kelela’s next chapter, RAVEN, promises a sonically beautiful and lustrous experience. On RAVEN, Kelela emerges from the tides of her higher self’s oceanic orbit to explore autonomy, belonging and self-renewal as healing across the fifteen-track LP. “Washed Away” and “Happy Ending” have already both been regaled with critical acclaim: Pitchfork called “Washed Away” a “showcase for her swooping soprano” and “Happy Ending” also demonstrative of her “breathy, decorous vocals.” 

“I started this process from the feeling of isolation and alienation I’ve always had as a black femme in dance music, despite its black origins. RAVEN is my first breath taken in the dark, an affirmation of black femme perspective in the midst of systemic erasure and the sound of our vulnerability turned to power,” Kelela says about the project.

Skillfully straddling the frequencies of R&B and Dance music, Kelela has established herself as an artistic interpolator of music, art and fashion. Her early works Cut 4 Me (2013) and Hallucinogen (2015) were momentous examples of her singular spirit, and cemented her artistry as a leading force in the alternative, underground R&B and electronic worlds. She has since collaborated with fellow visionary artists like Solange, Gorillaz, Andrew Thomas Huang and Danny Brown. Thoughtfully intermixing elegance, futurism, divinity and sensuality, Kelela’s unique perspective has carved a lane that demonstrates style as both a component of art, and art in and of itself.


TRACK LISTING

A1. Washed Away
A2. Happy Ending
A3. Let It Go
A4. On The Run
B1. Missed Call
B2. Closure
B3. Contact
B4. Fooley
C1. Holier
C2. Raven
C3. Bruises
C4. Sorbet
D1. Divorce
D2. Enough For Love
D3. Far Away

Kelela

Take Me Apart

With great anticipation, Kelela's debut album emerges as an epic portrait of an artist spanning the past and future of R&B. In her hands, however, the genre knows no boundaries and so Take Me Apart exists as an absolutely singular and fearless addition to a canon of recent classics. From her very earliest work, honesty and vulnerability have been cornerstones of Kelela's art - even when clad in the armor of the avant-garde electronics she so deftly inhabits - and Take Me Apart sees her double down on both the emotional intensity and resonance of her message as well as the sonic seeking she is renowned for.

On 2015's acclaimed Hallucinogen EP, Kelela swept listeners along in the rush of ecstasy and the melancholic vapor trail of a hopeful, but ultimately doomed liaison. Hallucinogen would prove to be a turning point, and The New York Times would name it's single, "Rewind", one of the "25 Songs That Tell Us Where Music Is Going". The EP's oversized impact would ignite a period of kinetic worldwide live shows culminating in Kelela crisscrossing the globe on tour with The xx. In parallel with this, 2016 and early 2017 would see Kelela grace a handful of crucial records as a feature vocalist - from longtime ally Solange's majestic A Seat At The Table, to Danny Brown's immense Atrocity Exhibitionand most recently, the star-studded Humanz from Gorillaz. These appearances would be tantalizing signs leading the way to Take Me Apart.

Amplifying the ideas explored on Hallucinogen, here Kelela treats relationships and their effects like a Matryoshka doll, unveiling layer after layer to find herself at the center. Expressing an honest vision of how we navigate dissolving ties with each other and yet remain sanguine for the next chance at love, the emotional ricochet is traced across the album's narrative. Take Me Apart stands not only as an intensely personal chronicle, but also a defiant and turbulent statement direct from Kelela; "Despite it being a personal record, the politics of my identity informs how it sounds and how I choose to articulate my vulnerability and strength. I am a black woman, a second-generation Ethiopian-American, who grew up in the 'burbs listening to R&B, Jazz and Björk. All of it comes out in one way or another."

TRACK LISTING

1. Frontline
2. Waitin
3. Take Me Apart
4. Enough
5. Jupiter
6. Better
7. LMK
8. Truth Or Dare
9. S.O.S.
10. Blue Light
11. Onanon
12. Turn To Dust
13. Bluff
14. Altadena


Latest Pre-Sales

274 NEW ITEMS

E-newsletter —
Sign up
Back to top