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 accled
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 Exhibition and
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." The process of crafting Take Me Apart embraced the
approach of widely collaborative R&B, hip-hop and pop production
while roaming a strange and wonderful path. Working with a cast
of peers, Kelela deconstructs many results of their
collaborations and builds them back up into pieces of a cohesive
whole, effectively orchestrating these multitudes in aid of her
singular vision. "It's this tapestry I've knitted together that
attracts different types of listeners and challenges them at the
same time, often within the same song. That's what I want to
bring to my entire catalogue" says Kelela. Testament to this
approach, the album opens with a stunning trio of high points
from the low-slung mechanized swing of 'Frontline' to the
kaleidoscopic splendor of 'Waitin' - by which point you've been
pulled straight into the tale Kelela is weaving, and the warped
and chaotic beauty of the title track before dropping into
'Enough' which sounds as if it could have been transmitted from a
neon-lit jazz club in Akira's Neo-Tokyo. The timeless,
zero-gravity ballad 'Better' sees Kelela at her most unadorned -
baring her soul to a nameless other over subtly transforming
piano and synth textures while first single 'LMK' is all
staggering club swagger that manages to span the past 20 years of
innovative R&B while still exploring another dimension of
possibilities. These songs typify the melding of classic
song-craft and inventive production approach at the album's core,
but it's here where things take yet another exhilarating turn.
'Truth or Dare' has the brittle snap and vocal twists of a
Neptunes track while 'Blue Light' sees Kelela weld her sweeping
pleas to the warped sonic palette of Grime, pointing the way
forward to a possible future of cybernetic soul. Now we are swept
into the slipstream of a pair tracks in 'On And On' and the
otherworldly grandeur of 'Turn To Dust', which conjures images of
the powerful and iconic diva of Besson's The Fifth Element; and
it's a short trip to the unforgettable pneumatic gospel of album
closer 'Altadena', a perfect uroboros link back to 'Frontline' to
begin the saga all over again. At this point you're left with the
feeling that this trip through Take Me Apart is one you'll be
making many more times.
