kehlani - you should be here (2015)

"Jealous" is my favourite song not to get a vote.

Haha classic early adopter ilx poll results

i think i forgot, i woulda voted for 'be alright' : /

no wait 'bright'

the empowering one

grammy nominated

RIGHT HERE

http://www.hotnewhiphop.com/kehlani-tore-up-new-song.1967554.html

Great piece, Tim (though disagree somewhat about Beyonce as universalist: think she gives this innocent/simple country boy mind the grand illusion of seeing through *her* eyes, feeling the rush and massive skyscraper impact of *her* outsized experience, sometimes anyway). Also other comments on this thread got me going, will check alb.

didn't vote in this but i've been feeling Bright lately

Jealous is the earworm on here for me

new song "Did I" is def a step closer to the mainstream

heh i too once eagerly invoked nivea to sell this (or perhaps the prev one idk) to someone before sternly reminding myself that irlx is not a thing

looking forward to her going a bit more pop if so, feels right now. maybe someone oughta hook her up with some y2k 'he loves u not'/ 'no matta what' spazz beats just cos she can

Omg yes

almost too cruel to invoke that possibility when it will never happen

i think she'll be great at going pop in whatever era though, albeit not with this new one specifically, which feels a bit trudging compared with her own stuff

relistening to "he loves u not" now (<3) and the first girl really is a dead ringer for kehlani!

maybe the pop & oak connection is polluting my thinking here but the way the sample is used in the "did i" hook is a little too reminiscent of "say it" for me

the rap part of the verses remind me of drake's big rings hook

good bridge

which actually reminds me of "FWU"

what the fuck is going on

http://www.factmag.com/2016/03/29/kehlani-suicide-attempt/

Always so sad to hear about anyone reaching this place.

new song
https://soundcloud.com/kehlanimusic/24-7a

this one's dope, way better than 'did i' IMO

THE EAST COAST AINT GOT NO LOVE FOR KEHLANI ?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRHoonuZ8og

Not as into that one as the other new one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCGky5MaSLs

something very swv about "distraction", i love it (and "24/7" is also such a necessary song)

I love it too but it's about 45 seconds too long? idk

"The Letter" is so brutal.

― Tim F, Friday, November 20, 2015 11:16 PM (4 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

totally. really exemplifies what makes her songwriting so effective for me - it's so unflinching, she doesn't sugarcoat any word or emotion (and her relatively plain style of singing accentuates this), but really elegant in the way she pieces together a situation and its consequences via so many details that bring the entire song into focus

― lex pretend, Tuesday, November 24, 2015 12:08 PM (nine months ago)

it's kind of fucked to put it even as early as trk 9 / 8 (w/ intro), since it wrecks you and then the next few songs can just pass by in a daze

"crzy" is getting those payola spins

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CtjoPDgUEAErbq-.jpg:large

can we initiate hype proceedings for the ilm aoty 2017 or what

'undercover' is perfect

looking forward to her going a bit more pop if so, feels right now. maybe someone oughta hook her up with some y2k 'he loves u not'/ 'no matta what' spazz beats just cos she can

― r|t|c, Thursday, 17 December 2015 10:10 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Omg yes

― Tim F, Thursday, 17 December 2015 10:43 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

almost too cruel to invoke that possibility when it will never happen

― cher guevara (lex pretend), Thursday, 17 December 2015 17:48 Bookmark

lowkey close!!

I'ma save your name under somethin' else
I'ma keep your things deep in myself
I'ma tweet our inside jokes to the outside world
Forget you, go away
I'ma pick you up from the back in trains
Kept you in the world when it's all pretend
You're just you, I'm just me
There's no us, it's nothin'

'undercover' is perfect

― r|t|c, Thursday, January 12, 2017 6:02 AM (three hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeh it is.

i loooove "undercover" and basically all of the other songs i've heard from this record

it's not even like chance x tlc blew my mind or anything but as soon i saw the cover and title i had this v relaxed certainty that yes this album will be a happening

now it feels like being in the airfield tower watching the career plane approach smoothly for landing

still quite opaque to locate the moment when/why her tide rose. to say it was the incident is reductively cynical but also pretty wrong i think

weirdly i think it was the grammy nom? like, them getting her singer-songwriterliness

omg "undercover"

I've listened to "undercover" about 20 times today

ha same

this album is too long but there's tons to like... i listened to you should be here today and i think that is still better but this album has some of the best songs she's ever written, some stuff that feels purposefully experimental that she really pulls off

the first track sounds like one of the upbeat songs on southern hummingbird, she does one song that is like fka twigs that is great, and this also has probably the most faithful and best aaliyah homage i've heard

there's no way I can get away with this in a review but "distraction" is both really good and like an R&B "bright yellow gun"

"piece of mind" is crazy good

I'm listening now. Sounds good.

katherine, that's an amazing description.

why is this album 62 minutes long lol

I don't care for the last third, or at least it hasn't clicked yet, but "Do U Dirty" to "Too Much" is my favorite sequence.

it's def too long, there's like 4-5 songs i'd cut to make it an easier and better listen, and i think most people will feel that way, but with different songs

the way she slips in and out of "frontin" on "everybody business" is awesome

i've listened to "hate the club" like 100 times, what a song

I really like toxic. thought this project was pretty low key but need to sit with it for a while. sweetsexysavage and while we wait both masterpieces for my money tho

you should be here is so good too. building quite the catalog

"Leave the juice to your squeeze" my god

I'm pretty obsessed with the "Open" half of "Open/Passionate" and the lyrics of the pre- and the chorus (and the perspective flip in the second pre-/chorus!):

[Pre-Chorus]
What if you slip up?
What if tequila grab your neck and say, "Don't bitch up"?
What if you wanna shoot your shot and load the clip up?
Are you scared to lose your queen and gain a bishop?

[Chorus]
Do I got you way too open to be open?
Is the lens you see me through just way too focused?
What if you're curious and caught up in the moment?
Can you hold me down when I'm across the ocean?
Can you control it?
Do I got you way too open to be open?
Would you let it twist up all of your emotions?
What if you're curious and caught up in the moment?
Do I got you way too open to be (open)

lmao my brain just shuts off and stops recording whenever i hear tory lanez's voice

otherwise i regret taking forever to get around to this record, it's fantastic

"bad news" is a really beautiful song

j0rd knows

"Open (Passionate)" is, according to my phone, 2020s most played song.

i just skip the first 2 songs honestly... from that point on it's very easily a top 5 record of the year to me

hate the club... what an artist

"grieving" is so good i'll even endure the unwelcome yodel of james blake

https://www.vulture.com/2020/07/kehlani-can-i-music-video-tory-lanez.html

Lanez wasn’t in the video, but it still featured his verse. “Full transparency cuz i believe in that with my following,” Kehlani tweeted. “His verse is still on the song, the video is solo. new verse on the deluxe.” In a since-deleted tweet, she added, “The album came out months ago i can’t remove it, doesn’t work like that. can only move forward.”

get lanez off this and it might be my fave track on the album
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjDDyKoNG2Q

there's a new album out???

Indeed.

It's pretty good

i think shes slipped quite a bit.

this is solid, hope it sticks with me better than the last one

kind of an odd record... it seems like she wanted to make an intimate, minor-by-design sort of album? i think it gets better at the end, starting w/ "altar." i like "tangerine" a lot. the gestures towards tempo (the slick rick sample, the bieber song) don't feel very realized. some of the production and vocals are pretty but idk how much any of the songs really stick w/ me.

the last album was great to me. this album is missing songs like "change your life" and "hate the club" ... and even "bad news" and "everybody business" does the sound of this album better than this album. will give this one a few more tries but it may just be a write off for me.

pitchfork has this rated as the best kehlani album... i'm yelling "objection" at the judge

this is her weakest to my ears

easily

I feel like if she waited a bit longer between albums and gathered up the best material she had, instead of doing random singles and mixtapes, she would have a better strike rate. Six albums (or album-length projects) in eight years is a lot.