Kelis in 2013

http://i.imgur.com/8KEOfmW.gif

i would've been concerned if rtc was into this

she's signed to his label iirc

dave sitek's or rtc's, take your pick

watch ur backs vita and amil there's a new first lady in town

A friend got tickets for a gig in London this Thursday - £11.

i don't think i can make thu :(

i hope every song on the album is titled after food

cibo matto swag

Production on Jerk Ribs is really clunky and doesn't suit her voice at all, finding out it's Sitek makes total sense.

wtf is clunky about "jerk ribs"

It just sounds awkward and forced and not quite the right fit to the vocals, like a slightly dodgy faux-retro soul remix. You can just tell he's not 100% comfortable in this environment.

i think that's completely inaccurate

there is nothing forced about this song

You can just tell he's not 100% comfortable in this environment.

― Matt DC, Wednesday, 29 May 2013 12:54 (2 minutes ago) Bookmark

just like the ppl that heart this tune amirite

Like for a second I considered saying that I could envisage a Mark Ronson remix of I dunno Janelle Monae or someone being less unconvincing than this song, but that really is the bringing-up-Grant-Holt of music discussion.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEMwX0fnpzg

Album F.O.O.D. out 11 February 2014

looking forward to the Kelis in 2014 thread

oh the new one is really lovely

Only just cottened on to Jerk Ribs, terrific track. Been Given a Morning sounds nice as well, quite Bondy.

well it'll be 2014 now (maybe a mod change to the thread title, including the album title?) but HERE WE ARE

KELIS
ANNOUNCES SIGNING TO NINJA TUNE
AND THE RELEASE OF HER NEW ALBUM ‘FOOD’
ON APRIL 28, 2014

Ninja Tune are proud to announce the worldwide signing of Kelis, and her new album, ‘Food’.

Entirely produced by Dave Sitek (founder of TV On The Radio and producer for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Liars and Foals amongst others), the album is a homecoming for Kelis: a soul record that's as raw and alternative as it is classic. Ninja Tune were blown away by the record, and leapt at the chance to work with a legend that's always had a forward-thinking sound and oozed style.

'Food' is a startling combination of Kelis' most frank and vulnerable vocals to date, and Sitek's inimitable sonic imprint. Littered with transcendent, Spector-esque lift, warm bottom ends and vast depth, the music is the perfect backdrop for Kelis’ unique voice. The latter has only improved with time and experience, and the album candidly explores pain, happiness and everything in between.

Kelis says of the signing: "I'm really happy to be partnering with Ninja Tune on my new record. This is the album I've wanted to make for a long time and I want the team around me to be as excited and energetic about it as I am. I'm also very happy to be working with some of the most creative people in the industry.”

In choosing Ninja Tune as her new home, she's another example of a world-class talent turning to the independent sector in order to work outside the constraints often put in place by major labels. With Ninja Tune best known for its gold selling acts such as Bonobo, The Heavy, Mr. Scruff, The Cinematic Orchestra, Roots Manuva and Wiley, their diverse roster and understanding and experience with creative, independent artists, the match made perfect sense.

With two Grammy nominations, Platinum and Gold records, BRIT, Q and NME Awards and dozens of top 10 singles to her name, Kelis is an artist who needs no introduction. She has collaborated with the likes of Bjork, Raphael Saadiq, Moby, Outkast, P Diddy and Skream to name but a few. Her recent collaboration with Calvin Harris, ‘Bounce,’ went straight into the top 10, and when she posted new track ‘Jerk Ribs’ a few short months ago, she set the blogosphere alight.

'Food' is set for release on Ninja Tune on April 28, 2014

ninja tune! that's weird

oh nevermind i see TVOTR dude produced

Yeah, but if it's along the same lines as Jerk Ribs, it's still a weird marriage.

There's a sense of really unfun worthiness around this whole project that makes Ninja Tune pretty much the perfect label for it.

glad lex revived this thread as I listened to "Jerk Ribs" again two nights ago and was convinced it belonged on my year-end list.

great song

it's an amazing song, i reminded myself of it last week for EOY purposes. no idea what matt hears as worthy in it.

"been given a morning" is low-key brilliant as well

I love "jerk ribs" but the final sentence of that press release might as well say "recently Kelis has been singing to herself in the shower."

http://ninjatune.net/release/dj-food/kaleidoscope

rly makes u think huh

Most of all I wish Kelis had done her "let's go underground" move 7 or so years ago with an album of tunes like "80s Joint".

track listing:
1 Jerk Ribs
2 Breakfast
3 Forever Be
4 Floyd
5 Runner
6 Hooch
7 Cobbler
8 Bless The Telephone
9 Fish Fry
10 Change
11 Rumble
12 Biscuits n Gravy
13 Dreamer

i hope rumble features hungry stomach rumbles

She's playing in Brighton in a couple of months and I'm in two minds about going to see her. Someone tell me what to do?

i've somehow never seen her live and i would certainly do it

She's a blast live in a shameless wedding-DJ kind of way.

Just checking out Jerk Ribs for the first time. Wow!

it's apparently on itunes now - i'd wondered why it had been scrubbed from the internet at the end of last year

tempted by the brighton gig myself
sits nicely between two weddings for me

https://soundcloud.com/iamkelis/rumble/s-HQ0ni

http://pitchfork.com/news/54013-kelis-will-host-a-show-on-the-cooking-channel/

damn good album on one listen

this album is bizarre

good weekend morning album

there's something about the production that feels super urban (in the dictionary definition sense of the word, not the colloquial) to me, and i really like that about it

Not sure what to make of this yet, it really is quite a strange album. I think I like it but definitely need to spend a lot more time with it. Floyd was the standout after one play, beautiful chorus.

Not sure she's going to have big hits from it. Think Jerk Ribs would be her best bet but she already gave that away for free last year.

"She needs ice cold water"

huh, they've switched "breakfast" and "jerk ribs" in the running order from the press copy - minor alteration but i liked the way the album opening with her kid's voice talking about food made it feel like a segue from tasty ending with kelis's voice saying "ok: now, swallow"

I don't get strange or bizarre from this. I think it's brilliant.

yeah i don't hear what's strange about it at all, it's comforting (but also kind of enlivening) at the same time, like some sort of platonic ideal of homecoming

and the more i listen the more fantastic i think it is

excited to hear it!

I can't keep up with 2014, people please slow down!

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."

Kelis one of the best singles artists of our generation imo

Saw her last night and it really cemented the fact that Food is really her strongest set of songs ever. I'm just not feeling the Sitek production on the LP. LOVE him on the TVOTR and the ScarJo but I think his reserved, cool, claustrophobic sound really sucks all the funk and life from these songs. I would have rather had, like, a Daptone style production or even Adrian Younge.

But reading this thread it's like, what the fuck do i know

i'm not that familiar with sitek but i don't hear anything untoward or unusual about the production, the arrangements are incredible though.

she has picked her singles very judiciously over her career for sure, unlike many. pox kelis deep cuts tho:

mafia
suspended
daddy
flash back
stick up
marathon
fuck them bitches
brave
runner
biscuits 'n' gravy

oh wait "brave" was apparently a single, replace with "little suzie"

1.5 songs in and I feel like I'm listening to a lost Des'ree album

Whenever I have a parade that needs raining on I know that ILX won't disappoint.

Unlike everyone else on ILX, I never hated Des'ree

"Cobbler" -> "Bless the Telephone" -> "Friday Fish Fry" is a great sequence of songs

Ha, sorry. To both you and Des'ree.

Why is Floyd so perfect. Such an amazing album.

on spotify now

So this is really great.

is this album getting some love by blogging circles/music critics? i have been addicted to this record for 3 days.
Walking down the streets to Friday Fish Fry is one of the best feelings I had this summer.

She played New York about a month ago - did anyone go? I thought about it but then didn't.

I was just about to revive this thread. After giving the album a listen when it leaked and not really getting into it I've just gone back to it and found myself getting addicted to certain songs on here. Played it five times in the last day.

The songs on this album are approximately 10000000000000x more enjoyable when heard live. Saw her show last night and she was a complete delight - I came out grinning from ear to ear.

I mean first of all this album still rules

second of all did you know Mount Kimbie did a remix of "Jerk Ribs"??? Holy shit!!! There's some echo on the vocal that really evokes some 80's pop R&B vibes imo!! V fresh and great!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUAY9X8CWjY

I'm surprised "Forever Be" wasn't released as a single

also "Floyd" still sounds like Spiritualized to my ears.

this album is still so underrated

^ Agreed. "Floyd" is such a beautiful jam.

it always sounds beautiful in the summer gloaming

kelis in 2021!!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EJLxF0mElM

I haven't felt compelled to return to the rest of it, and my overall impression is that it's pretty dull.

Also wow I was SO wrong about Food back when it was first released. It's probably my favourite Kelis album now, or at the very least my most-played.