Hi everyone, Toothony Hottano here, the internet's busiest music nerd, and it's time for a review of this new Kelela project, new avatar.

American singer and songwriter Kelela is back with her third full-length studio album. She hails originally from Washington, D. C. and it has been about over a decade now since she originally broke on the independent music scene there with her early releases like the Cut For Me mixtape, as well as her fantastic debut record Take Me Apart, a project which, over the years, has most definitely gone down as like an alternative R&B and modern art-pop essential.

Now, it would eventually take Kelela about six years or so to follow that album up with the record Raven, an album that saw her taking many of her core influences and fusing them with a variety of different electronic dance music styles – some downtempo, some UK bass, some breakbeat stuff – all with with her kind of ambient flair with dark, spacey, subtle production. It was a bold move, but also one that had a very kind of faint and super low energy presentation, something that led to me feeling kind of underwhelmed. However, that did not stop a flood of glowing fan and critic reviews at the time. This was a beloved record, for sure.

And now, several years later, we have new avatar. And I guess with this LP, Kelela wanted to do something narratively and also sonically that at least a little bit reflected her time on the DC music scene, like with the music she recorded with her old band Dizzy Spells. So on new avatar, we get that along with, of course, her trademark alternative R&B sound and a lot of the dance and electronic influences that she has picked up along the way on Raven – really like a culmination of everything Kelela has done up until this point. And this is perfectly exemplified by the opening track, "idea 1," which features gorgeous, alluring lead vocals, subterranean 808s ringing out against these really fuzzy, textured walls of guitar. It's a track that's equal parts enveloping, beautiful, and epic.

Now, this record also features a run of collaborations from the likes of A.K. Paul, Fousheé, as well as PinkPantheress, which I will get into, but of course its most major contributor is maybe producer Oscar Scheller, who Kelela sticks with for the entirety of this record. Focusing on a single producer isn't something she has quite committed to in the past, but I will say doing that has led to a really consistently chill and cerebral sound for new avatar, which in total is 12 tracks, 40 minutes, and, as I said, has a pretty strong start to it.

But after "idea 1," it doesn't take long for her and Oscar to start hitting us with some of those UK dance influences – with an R&B twist, of course, which, mind you, I'm not complaining about. This obviously comes in the form of "point blank," and personally I think it's pretty cool that we (1), have a track here that can present such an obvious genre shift, but still be so in tune and on the same page as the song before, in terms of mood and aesthetics, and (2), that Kelela is coming at a track in this style with more fire and passion vocally than she was showcasing on a lot of Raven. There's a super clear song structure to this track, too, that keeps it super engaging, even if the presentation is very soft and pillowy.

The moody rock guitars return, though, on the track "goin down," but with even heavier vibes than "idea 1," thanks in part to some super slow and punchy drum sequences, but also the lyrics on this track, which seem to deal in this relationship that over time is growing more and more stressful and impossible to bear, with the constant tension and misery just driving Kelela and this person apart.

Then "outta time" features A.K. Paul, who I think creatively is maybe Kelela's most kindred spirit on this project, seeing his connections to, of course, Jai Paul and their label, where they create, release, and host the music of other artists who operate in a kind of similar abstract, left-field, frigid, ice-cold R&B lane. So of course, together, teaming up on this one track, Kelela and Paul bring out in each other their most spacey, muted R&B selves. And the result is a song that is trying to do as little as it can sonically, but also as much as it can emotionally, as this track contains one of the best vocal performances from Kelela on the entire project. And I love hearing her and Paul kind of trade lines and ad-libs all over the second half of the song. It's a weird but beautiful kind of chemistry.

So with all these tracks together, we do have a very strong first leg of the record, but following this we have a midpoint that does vary in quality, either due to questionable production choices, like on "against me," whose prominent delay effects on the drums, I think, do kind of take away from the super sparse groove and the intimacy on this track quite a bit. I also see no reason why this track has to be as skeletal as it is.

We also have "retaliation lullaby," which is a bit of a one-note moment structurally – something I do find underwhelming to a fault, even if the title does imply we're gonna be in for something sleepy. We also have the curiously short "linknb," which has one of the most explosive beats on the entire project, relatively, and is a bit too eager to disappear short of a two-minute runtime. This one really could have offered more.

When the second half of this record is good, it is when Kelela and Oscar are drumming up tracks that are passionate, are textured, as well as immersive. Of course "crystalize," as well as "don't piss me off," which I think scratches a very similar itch to "point blank," but does so now with even sexier and more high-tension lyrics. There's just something about the writing on this track, how Kelela is attracted to just how turbulent this dynamic is, emotionally and sexually, that comes off hilariously toxic.

Then we go into back-to-back features on this thing, one of which is Foushée, appearing on the track "new life forms," a surprisingly fun, bouncy, and alluring cut. I love the collaborative chemistry here. I love the energy overall, though part of me does kind of wonder what a more lush and warm version of this song could have been, instrumentally speaking, given how much more light-hearted this track is in comparison with everything else here.

There's, of course, also "the bridge" with PinkPantheress, a single to this record, and a great one at that. Of course, given, Kelela and Pink's respective love for UK dance-pop, they're very much entering this collab on the same page. And Pink has a history of going into tracks with a very gentle vocal approach, which is why she weaves so well into these beautiful and buttery layers of synthesizers and vocal harmonies.

The closing track is kind of like a monologue moment, essentially telling the listener why this relationship, that seems to have inspired a lot of key tracks on this record, kind of just fell apart. And not only is Kelela's vocal performance on this song compelling, but just the way she's kind of expressing her way through these lines. You're feeling every word, as if she's not just singing but reading a breakup letter. This is the letter you find on the pillow when she's gone in the morning.

A very soft, subtle, but also painfully sad finish to this record, which I think, overall, is another impressive and enjoyable one from Kelela. Maybe not quite at the level of her debut with the love that I had for it out of the gate and the many years it has had to grow on me, too. But I definitely loved and appreciated what she was doing on this front, quite a bit more than what she was able to achieve on Raven.

And again, I very much see this album as something that is very personal in terms of its storytelling, and also very versatile in terms of all the different musical styles that went into its production, and how well they're embodied and fused together into this very kind of dreamy and dark emotional experience – even if there were a handful of underwhelming cuts around the midpoint. Which is why I'm feeling about a light to decent 8 on this album.

Anthony Fantano. Kelela. Forever.