kehlani - you should be here (2015)

lol

it's rly good

songwriting seems really on another level

i'm a little cool on the chorus/title of 'feels', seems too trite given her keen ear for conversational lyric-writing (if she were a novelist people would praise her ear for dialogue)

but the production on butterfly amazes me

[Pre-Chorus: Kehlani]
But here’s to being honest
Neither of us knew what we wanted
But all we knew is that we cared
Still all we painted was a moment

[Chorus: Kehlani]
And when I walked away
I left footsteps in the mud so you could follow me
And when I walked away
I left footsteps in the mud so you could follow me
You’re so bad at holding water, slips right through your fingers
We'd both end up drowning, it would hit the ground
And then the path would wash away, wash away

fuck me all the wya up

― J0rdan S., Friday, February 22, 2019 1:36 PM (five days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah "feels" makes me a little itchy... i think i prefer "love language"

love "Toxic":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Ej_l8C5Q94

yes - it owns, so does the new video. really hyped for the new album. while we wait was lk one of the best of 2019

that video - “Quarantine Style”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmFP1AP-afM

new album It Was Good Until It Wasn't out May 8!

It's out!

'hate the club' is amazing.

I've been looking for it for a couple days.

playing now, all the advance singles and features have been great so i'm pretty hyped.

enjoying this but it strangely feels a little low-key compared to last year's While We Wait which everyone really slept on

hi!

you reviewed this, right?

no, alas

this is solid but I agree with "little low key" and the "transition record" comment from this vulture interview... the floor is lower than previous albums but I've yet to find the song that sends me like Undercover or Nights Like This

https://www.vulture.com/2020/05/kehlani-profile-it-was-good-until-it-wasnt.html

Kehani being ridiculously patient with Charlamagne here (who is trending on the back of this)

charlamagne really be gaslighting the FUCK out of his female guest and it pisses me off every single time. props to kehlani for keeping it cool cause i definitely woulda got in his ass talmbout “you cant forgive a lil cheating?” “niggas fuck up” https://t.co/WiUhyIwIUm

— lil gemini (@tr_imani) May 9, 2020

very surprised to learn SweetSexySavage was "rushed" and "half-finished ideas" because it's such a solid record, doesn't sound that way at all

This record feels rushed, actually; it's my least favorite to date.

well "rushed" and "half-finished" were the writer's words

“I started an album as one person and went through the most traumatic event in my life,” she says. Her label held fast to its deadline, leaving her to make an album from songs she barely recognized. “I didn’t connect with any of the music,” she says. “I was embarrassed of everything.”

she's talking about the album in a really specific personal context. she may have not connected w/ the music by the time it came out (or even when it was recorded?) but that's different than saying that the songs themselves aren't good

tbh to me it feels like the story is trying to wedge sexysweetsavage into the well worn storyline that goes "pop artist forced by label to record songs against their will, returns w/ more artistically true album." but it feels like inaccurate framing to me... i mean, i personally wrote at the time that the album was a triumph for "real" R&B in a world where branding and pop stardom mattered more, so idk it's hard for me to see it as a failed sellout record or something like that. again, this is divorced completely from how the recording and release of the album mapped across kehlani's own personal life, and how she feels about it now because of it

it is at best her third best project to me tho

sexysweetsavage didn't seem bad to me, just more 'professional'—not as lived-in in the songwriting or production

as for this album, it's kinda patchy at the beginning. but once it gets to "change your life" it's pretty great until the end. the production gets really cool, some of the melodic runs and stuff on "hate the club" are really cool. it opens up a bit gets, more acoustic... "can you blame me" is perfect. the james blake feature is regrettable. overall this is pretty safely one of the better records i've heard this year.

i really think 'sweetsexysavage' is kinda of a r&b masterpiece.

"Water," "Can You Blame Me," "Hate the Club," and "Open (Passionate)" are my keepers.

oh man "change your life" rules

Leaning into Toxic, Change Your Life, F&MU, Water as the return tracks. I wish Tory Lanez wasn't on Can I, it's otherwise quite good.

it's really just the first 2 songs on here i don't like. "bad news" is a really beautiful song. there's at least 3 instant classic records on this, prob a handful that i would put on a best of mix, and i've been playing the full album aside from "toxic" and "can i" nonstop since friday

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