Kelis - C/D

Wanderland is supposedly up for a revamped US proper release, which it probably needs. Also "Young Fresh & New" was neat but probably a bit too weird for the single.

"Wanderland" is probably better than many people think, simply because it was released apologetically without promotion with a can't-be-bothered cover, but the Nepts were definitely spreading themselves a bit thin by this point.

Kelis will be alright, though, if she can lift Maas above the masses then she'll have the pick of the superproducers queuing for her first "free" album.

Having said that, it's perfectly possible that she might never make another very good record, but I hope she does.

this argument no longer washes in today's post -"grindin" world. paradoxical though that is, since it sounds just like a dub duke bootee production

sorry 4 tha hijack

A bit unfair, I think. Some would say that to not like Coltrane is to not like jazz, say, but Mark S clearly loves his jazz and is no Coltrane fan (unless I've completely missed something). Mistaking one person/album/song for the sole keys to the kingdom doesn't seem appropriate.

I'm never really sure what all you listen to, but in your case it seems weirder to say this and still say you like r+b (if you would say that). at least I have some idea that mark will go for a lot of jazz or free jazz. with you, it just seems like isolated records.

I wouldn't call it specifically willful, Josh -- my own reaction to it was that when it came out, and that the past couple of years have seen it elevated to where it is doesn't so much mean I'm trying to be contrarian so much as my own reactions to it just stand out all the more. I don't know whether that helps any or not. To address the larger question...*thinks*...I think it just means that people's tastes are more complicated and less prone to rigorous 'if x then y' conclusions that might be thought. Admittedly that's the type of thing I would say, but it doesn't really strike me as odd.

I'm never really sure what all you listen to

Shouldn't that be everyone's goal? Why confirm expectations? :-)

HAHA I WAS ONLY JOKING NED PLEASE SPARE MEEEE

oh wait, they were at the time as well...

Death to the unbeliever.

my posts seem really dumb months later :(

Eh? Why do you say that?

Is Milkshake actual new single, or just floaty-around-newness? Is there imminent third album? Want want want want WANT.

(producers allegedly include timbaland, diddy, dame grease, r saadiq and dallas austin)(no i don't know who all of those people are either)

I think "Popular Thug" (original) is her finest moment though.

I heard new single 'Bossy' yesterday which hasn't stuck in my head, but I need to give it a few more plays.

My girlfriend showed me a feature of her in Elle magazine and she appeared to be sporting a Supremes-like straight bob haircut too.

'bossy' is initially underwhelming - it's VERY minimal, though when i listened back to tasty at the weekend i realised that she was playing with sparse plinky-plonky 808 sounds on quite a few of the album tracks there. i think it's good, and it makes me very intrigued to hear what she'll be up to on the album, but it's an odd choice of single. i heard it last year and thought it was just an unreleased demo like 'running mate' - i didn't think it had the oomph to be a lead single!

I associate him with making guitars sound fantastic (even when boring bands are involved) but I've no idea how he would approach a Kelis track. Not heard this one yet.

oh it's called "jerk ribs" not "call on me"

http://soundcloud.com/kelis/jerk-ribs

this song is really damn good

Sounds kind of Dear Science

LOVE IT.

I wish her vocal and the melody was a little bit more...something. The track itself is a total jam, though.

You know when Beyonce said she was being influenced by Fela Kuti? The arrangement here is kinda what I imagined.

yeah this is for real

Song is great. Horns are straight off a Tony Allen album from the '70s. Would love to hear a whole album like this.

feeling this tbh

like this and...it kinda reminds me of the solange stuff from last yr

I see the resemblance definitely but I'm liking this a lot more.

I was so put off by "Losing You" I never checked out the other new Solange stuff :/

Losing You's b-side was fantastic. Better than the rest of the ep.

(I'd forgotten the name. It's "Sleep in the Park".)

lol, i've seen people elsewhere react to this with "she's copying solange!!!!" as though both of them weren't harking back to and drawing on much older forms of soul, afrobeat etc

(and as though kelis hasn't just written an effortlessly better song)

Crucially, Kelis doesn't feel like she's using drums as a strainer-filter for all the messy emotion of R&B.

i don't think she's copied her, merely that they appear to be mining similar territory. fan of both ftr.

not feeling

Me neither. The horns are an annoyance.

Just pulled out wanderland again. Haven't listened to it in years and it drives me nuts that they've yanked all the stuff from it from youtube on copyright grounds, which is insane because its like you didn't even release the album in the states! why won't you just let people hear it!

start-to-finish one of my favorite albums still. other albums and artists probably have better individual tracks. but it has a consistency of vision and an overall structure that just knocks me out. Also this is probably my favorite period of neptunes productions. another buried kelis/neptunes classic circa about the same period is Royce Da 5'9"'s Make This Run. love how the production feels looped and regular and super-electronic but simultaneously sort of subtly evolves over the course of the tracks with a subtly organic feel. its like it keeps time with my breathing. and the imagery with the wings is just next level.

the intro on junkie is so playful.

the futurism/conscious stuff in little suzie especially, its like the direct predecessor to janelle monae. i wonder how different kelis' career could have been if this was a hit in the states.

new song is strong imo, i'm into the production.

holy shit i never heard the young fresh so solid remix before! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wiFB3B8qyY

it's a mess, but it's also totally great.

I just heard the last part of a great interview w/ Kelis on the broadcast of the "BBC World Service" (for either March 4 or 5, I would guess)

anyone know where I can find the rest of it? google is no help.

One of these, maybe? Kelis seems to have been on BBC Radio a lot in the past couple of days.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/search/iplayer/?q=kelis

kelis flesh tone is insanely underrated

21st century/fourth of july are all time

22nd century **

otm

I did not remember that Ned didn't like Kelis

Playing 3 shows in Victoria soon, sounds amazing

felt sad at seeing her judge that awful choir competition thing on the BBC (since cancelled?) but hey gotta pay the bills

icymi https://www.thefader.com/2019/06/05/kelis-neptunes-produced-record-wanderland-is-finally-streaming

classique

this disclosure thing is my dance anthem tbh

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GM2oOEmDU3w

oof cringey video tho

solid jam

by all accounts Nas was a terrible husband and his story of their relationship on "Bye Baby" is probably a load of bullshit, but this image stuck with me:

You screaming at the racist cops in Miami was probably
The highlight of my life

https://pitchfork.com/news/kelis-says-she-wasnt-told-beyonce-sampled-her-on-renaissance/

“Milkshake” is interpolated on Beyonce's “Energy.” When she heard the song was sampled, Kelis likened it to “theft.” She is not listed as one of the producers, composers, or lyricists on the sampled song and has previously discussed the terms of her early contract.

It's the delivery of the lines "On stage, rockin', I'm star crazy, Cocoa flow like 1980's" using the flow from the Milkshake hook that's in question? used to be a commonplace and benign thing to make references like that

maybe I'm not hearing it right

Kelis thinks she should have gotten a songwriting credit for "Milkshake" long ago, but acknowledges she signed a contract then. So since there's a credit on the B album to the Neptunes for the "interpolation" she thinks she should have been credited as well. But yeah that used to be commonplace to make melodic references like that.

Aah now I get it, thx

So she's dating Bill Murray. Huh.

Um…

Great revive?

I don’t know what famous people do.

Pondering it too much, that way lies madness.

Not that this will stop me.

I don't have any actual opinion about Kelis dating Bill Murray, I just thought it was interesting in a "pictures of famous people you wouldn't expect together" way.

Right, of course.

Guess we might as well actually see a picture.

https://consequence.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Kelis-and-Bill-Murray.jpeg