Kelis in 2013

I was asked to write about this record for The Talkhouse but I'm gonna have to pass, this is beyond my ability to write about. I have a running theory that men and women who can sing, like, can really sing, they're encumbered, rather than gifted, as record-makers. A song written for a golden-voiced singer will more-often-than-not be written to showcase That Voice-- all melisma and emotion-- voice placed hot and sharp in the mix-- moment to show off the falsetto-- listen to that lung capacity-- a four-octave range?

I was gonna try and frame Kelis and her half-woman half-horse voice as proof of theory, how it always felt she was struggling on those first two records and flailing on Tasty, but that the struggle itself was so musical, created such great records. I remember when "Milkshake" was a hit, and I was playing "Trick Me" every morning, it was always being said by my roommates etc. "she doesn't have the voice," but I was always so into it, her clumsiness on "Bossy", the braying of "Lil Star" and best/worst attempt at vocalise at the end of "Marathon", omggggg!

In catching up with Kelis though I listened to the EDM record and hated it, beyond hated it, and was surprised that there was love for it here, and realized that a) Kelis toes the line for me in terms of what it expected of an artist, vocally, and is failing more often than succeeding on this one; b) other people think she's a great singer! so my argument is faulty anyway.

her voice is really interesting because "half woman half horse" is actually accurate but it's like suspension of disbelief, there are only ever occasional flashes where you go "actually...your voice...what?" because she acts and sings as though she has a conventionally excellent r&b voice

OMG that is so spot on.

In my experience she can't really sing in tune live, but I love the timbre and texture of her voice. You only really notice its limitations when she's trying to sing high, her lower register sounds great.

One of the reasons I initially recoiled from Jerk Ribs is because her voice and the backing don't really seem to fit well together - that cycling high-pitched bass guitar feels like it's from a different track to the vocal altogether, and that only really resolves itself when the arrangement fills out.

But there are moments on this record, particularly it's softer moments, where you can tell that real attention has been paid to how the vocals and the music *sound* together - I think it's on the chorus of Floyd where the horns and the voice blend together and the specific way they've been mixed just sounds gorgeous together.

There seem to be a lot of cases of artist/producer symbiosis recently: Ferreira/Rechtshaid, Cherry/Four Tet, Kelis/Sitek.

she acts and sings as though she has a conventionally excellent r&b voice

Yeah otm!

I love Sitek as a producer, really love him, not a TVOTR fan but he's always approached his productions with taste and class

videos of her 2014 live show look amazing

I feel like the main thing that keeps this from sounding too retro is that the low end has a very modern thickness to it.

THAT makes me want to check this out.

this album is some boring urban lumberjack hamburger blogger shit

THAT makes me NOT want to check this out.

overcompensating, this album kicks

this album is some boring urban lumberjack hamburger blogger shit

― r|t|c,

it's an ok album but a little too languid for me. i'd be more into her going back to serving milkshakes rather than coffee

No this is totally urban lumberjack hamburger blogger shit but I am okay with that in small doses and this is a superior quality example of it.

Also I would much rather hear Kelis do this sort of thing than one of the usual mumbling feebs.

word

Ok having listened to this again, I'm not really sure the tunes are there. And it's really samey. There's no reason "Bless the Telephone" should sound like as much of a respite as it does.

I put on the Lady album from last year right after, and despite the fact that it's way more period-retro than Kelis' album, it manages to do so much more, and the production sounds better to boot. Kinda funny that this is where Kelis and Nicole Wray are at tho. Who would have guessed this in 1999?

I get "samey" as the single-producer thing makes it sound uniform in the way rock records (usually) do, but I don't think it lacks for tunes at all.

There's no reason "Bless the Telephone" should sound like as much of a respite as it does.

otm x 1000. It was like a cushion.

I'm not in love with this album but I'm willing to bet I'd like it a lot more if I heard it performed live.

Lots of single-producer albums have variety.

recommend listening to this album while walking around outside once spring descends

i need to check out that lady record though

oh jeez louise this album is SO MAGNIFICENT

this album is some boring urban lumberjack hamburger blogger shit
― r|t|c, Saturday, March 22, 2014 1:11 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

haha that is so cruel and arcane in a way but I know precisely what you mean

good on ILM

all I got after googling "urban lumberjack hamburger"

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_qiIUvNfQSR4/Swd8Dal5nsI/AAAAAAAAGOs/MxPDmQ3hiVM/s320/Pound+Burger+2.JPG

Finally listening. Kinda agreeing with everyone? In that I can enjoy it but I'm not overwhelmed, but the details and edges, in both her singing and the arrangements, keep me gently engaged. Rather like the extended elegance at the end of "Floyd."

Kelis makes an Ann Peebles album is something I should be excited about on paper, but holy hell this is dull

^^nonsense

not nonsense: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/13/magazine/what-kelis-and-paul-newman-have-in-common.html?smid=tw-nytmag&_r=2

You had a hit song with “Bossy” in 2006. Recently, Sheryl Sandberg started a campaign to ban the word. Do you think that word is bad for girls? Bossy? Give me a break. Obviously there are a lot more sensitive words that I can think of that I’ve been called. Bossy, to me, is not one of them. But to each his own.

You collaborated with Too $hort on that song, and he’s not exactly a feminist. Have you gotten pushback from women’s groups? Never ever, like literally never. I don’t make campaigns; I just say what I say. I believe it, I live it and no one’s ever had the gall to approach me with something so ridiculous.

Your ex-husband, the rapper Nas, put your wedding dress on his album cover. Why did he still have the dress? It’s not even the dress. The joke behind that is that it’s the slip to the petticoat to my dress. I think when I moved out I just left it. That’s all he had, poor thing.

Did you know that was coming? He gave me a heads-up like two days before it was released.

Do you know why? All kinds of ideas of why, but I don’t really care.

But it brought up a bunch of stuff you were probably hoping was in the past. Maybe for others, but not for me. I don’t really listen to his music anyway.

BURN / BURN / BURN / BURN

amazing

haha, fuck

Excellent interview.

Blah album.

there isn't a song on this album i don't love. it's probably my AOTY of 2014 so far, only toni & babyface comes close

This album reminds me of Spiritualized

This is the first record of hers where I felt her voice just couldn't carry it, flying in the face of years and years of defending her "bad" voice as being her greatest asset. But I'll probably change my mind by the end of the year

I don't get the trouble people have w/ her voice. But I also don't get the trouble people have w/ Future Islands guy so

Yeah I gotta say she's a looooong way away from being a bad singer

(and I just have nothing to say to people who hate on Herring, about 99% of my favourite music in the world is sung by "worse" singers than that guy.)

I love a lot of bad singers. Kelis is not a bad singer. She may not be the kind of songwriter or arranger who can sustain THIS kind of album though.

I mean the idea of "good" and "bad" is harsh to talk about bc so many technically gifted singers will oversing to the point that the human element is destroyed (Jill Scott, Florence-- my humble and very personal opinion obv) but Kelis' lack of vocal agility is enormous! sometimes flabbergasting! as I mentioned above, see "Marathon", the vocal ad-libs at the end are dead clumsy but somehow it really works. There's a struggle there and I feel like, on her side, on her team, see also Alicia Keys' flat-ass singing on pretty much everything ("go team no-Autotune!" says I).

But I dunno I really hated that EDM record-- felt somewhat optimistic bc in its liner notes Kelis herself was all "I was pregnant and had next-to-nothing to do with this record, I just showed up"-- and was super optimistic for "Food" but I dunno, I don't generally like getting in-depth about stuff I'm not feeling, I'll post more about Kelis if and when this record wins me over

I wouldn't say she was a bad singer either but there are moments on here where I'm like "damn, someone give her a strepsil"

"Jerk Ribs" is excellent, but I haven't felt compelled to return to the rest of it, and my overall impression is that it's pretty dull. Par for the course for Ninja Tune, I suppose.

Yeah I loved Jerk Ribs too but nothing else is really sticking for me. This might be my least favourite album of hers at this point.

i feel like she makes her vocal inagility work for her on food by a) coming across like a world-weary but also relaxed husk, like she's singing along while cooking? (none of the food-related titles have a thing to do with the songs, so i don't know whether my strong association of the album with some idealised kitchen is actually in the music or whether her food-related marketing has worked well.) and b) because none of the songs are that dependent on her vocal skills to carry them - the arrangements are so detailed, at every point there's a bassline or a backing vocal ooh/aah that delights. and c) because the songs/hooks are there - moments like the "how could i forget you" swell on "runner" or "you can't escape the grips of desire" on "change" or the "biscuits'n'gravy" gradual explosion would work with just about any arrangement or style

increasingly i find it hard to assess kelis albums vis-à-vis each other - the only one i find dissatisfying in any way is kelis was here, and even though that's basically a mess it still has several brilliant tracks, and in any case it was only a mess because of the label issues she had at the time

anyway this seems also to be spawning lots of remixes. the mt kimbie one of "jerk ribs" is a disgrace but breach on "rumble" is a banger

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

idk, i listened to this today and it's not diminished at all in my estimation, even though i think i'm pretty predisposed toward finding it dull! possibly unreasonably enchanted by horn sections. but i think her vocal melodies are incredible throughout too. the chorus on "runnin'" pulls the whole song up with it

I keep on going back to the Labi Siffre cover.

"runner", "biscuits n gravy", "change", "floyd", "hooch" are my standouts apart from "jerk ribs" (obviously). i rep hard for this album eff everyone who thinks it's boring

I love this. Friday Fish Fry still my fav track

10 tracks in and the only one I could do without so far is "Bless the Telephone."