![]() While “Roller Rink” sounds like it might be about adolescents holding hands under neon lights, co-producer Pharrell Williams begins the song by talking about sex on a spaceship. “Get Along With You” takes a traditional R&B ballad and retools it for the new millennium, while the genre-bending “Mars” explores all kinds of rhythmic and melodic possibilities it’s a Halloween sitcom special meets Orson Wells’ War Of The Worlds, as Kelis sings about an intergalactic mission of love. Over fuzzy, upbeat keys, Kelis sings about the trials and tribulations that make her life feel like a game show.įans latched onto her primal declaration, “I hate you so much right now,” from “Caught Out There,” but Kaleidoscope, helmed by The Neptunes, was more nuanced in both styles and moods. ![]() In an album full of musical vignettes, “Game Show” offers the most straightforward narrative, but, musically, its jazz-tinged arrangement and playground melody is anything but. We need more like this.Click to load video A musical and emotional spectrum Uplifting, magical, genre-bending music, if there’s a better debut album this year, bring it on. While the chorus thumps away to the sound of laser guns, Kelis implores us: ”Do you hear what I’m talking about?/ Stay with me and we can conquer the world”. When you’re in a place where, ”This day-to-day action on earth just don’t appeal” all you have do is fly to Mars on the love shuttle. Kelis’ vision is best represented on the breathtaking call-to-arms of ‘Mars’. Remember? The love that Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder were talking about. Because while modern-day R&B love songs are more concerned with bills, bills, bills and beepers, Kelis sings of redemption through love, of space travel through love, of reaching higher planes through love. Their love transcends the badness – a recurring theme on the album. Take for instance the staccato, moody pop gem ‘Get Along With You’, yearning and dreaming like TLC used to do, while the Eastern-tinged ‘Mafia’ is reminiscent of Tricky‘s psychopathic sex vibes, finding Kelis in love with a dude from the dark side. ‘Kaleidoscope’ is a futuristic, visionary, multi-layered work of R&B, funk, soul and rap, furnished with an inspirational, psychedelic spirituality, rarely seen but desperately needed in these cynical times.Īlbum opener ‘Good Stuff’ is a cheeky, catchy-as-hell stomper – as good a debut album statement of intent as you’re likely to hear – while ‘Caught Out There’ still affects after all that airplay, but it’s when you get past these two that the magic of ‘Kaleidoscope’ really begins to take hold. ![]() It’s this fresh blend of The Neptunes‘ genius and Kelis’ effortless voice, mature beyond its years, that makes this such a special album. It helps that the producer of Kelis and ‘Kaleidoscope’ are Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo, aka The Neptunes – the only serious contenders for Missy Elliott and Timbaland‘s R&B heavyweight championship belt, The ‘Tunes are redefining modern soul/R&B production, blending live musicianship (they play everything themselves) with stripped-down, deceptively simple beats and a skewed use of playground melodies and orchestration. If not, you’ll have heard her rock-hard debut single ‘Caught Out There’ – you know, the crazy girl with the blonde Afro screaming, “I hate you so much right now!/I hate you so much right now!”. You might have heard 20-year-old, Harlem-bred Kelis on Ol ‘ Dirty Bastard’s anthem to pimping, ‘Got Your Money’, or Puffy‘s homage to himself, ‘PE 2000’.
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