Label: Warp
Released: 10th February 2023
Kelela has always straddled two musical worlds, the R&B she grew up on and the electronic dance she made a name for herself with. On her second album, ‘Raven’, she perfects their integration.
Born out of feeling alone as a Black femme in the dance community, ‘Raven’ plays out like a DJ mix – much like Beyoncé’s ‘Renaissance’ did last year, but if Bey’s record was the best party of your life, ‘Raven’ is the hours where Friday night becomes Saturday morning, when you’ve stayed up too long and the comedown starts kicking in.
It’s darker and sweatier, building on her debut, 2017’s ‘Take Me Apart’, and ditching the pop choruses of tracks like ‘LMK’ and ‘Waitin’ in favour of bubbling synths, swooshing keys and dreamy vocals that often drop out into extended club outros.
That’s not to say it’s devoid of bangers though. Pulling from New York house music (perhaps a move inspired by the record’s primary producer, LSDXOXO, the queer DJ who rose to fame in the Big Apple), as well as UK jungle and drum & bass.
‘Happy Ending’ and ‘Missed Call’ embrace chopped-up jungle beats but are grounded with Kelela’s usual smooth 90s R&B vocal, while ‘Contact’ comes in sounding like a sexier version of something you’d hear on a London pirate radio station. The second half of ‘Raven’ veers almost entirely into sprawling atmospheric landscapes, letting her gorgeous vocals have a moment on the trio of ‘Fooley’, ‘Holier’ and ‘Raven’ and keeping the tempo slower.
In an era where Black women are reclaiming their space in dance music – not just Beyonce with her house anthems but PinkPantheress’ sample mania, Nia Archives’ jungle revival, and Shygirl’s industrial dance bangers – Kelela arrives just in time with a long-awaited reminder she’s electronic music’s supreme.
