Artist: Kelis
Album: Flesh Tone
Release Date: 7.6.10
Anyone familiar with Kelis knows that her music has always been a hybrid of many genres. Her early tenure as the “go-to” girl for producers Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo of The Neptunes got her much acclaim as the featured artist on songs like “Got Your Money” -Ol Dirty Bastard, “What It Is”-Busta Rhymes, and “Candy”-Foxy Brown. With such a strong presence in hip-hop/r&b, Kelis never submitted to the categorizations, but after hearing the new album Flesh Tone, some fans might wonder why she’s suddenly thinking in the box.
Evolution is the theme Kelis pushes on her fans with this album. Recorded entirely album at her built-in studio garage while pregnant, Flesh Tone gives listeners a fresh sound, for her at least, unheard on any of her prior albums – but is that a good thing? Some can’t help but wonder: by aligning herself with Will.I.Am, have we lost our fly girl to the formulated success seeking sound of Electro-pop we’ve been hearing at the top of the Billboard charts recently?
Although Black Eyed Peas frontman and producer extraordinaire Will.I.Am has produced a slew of recent hits like “American Boy”-Estelle, “Imma Be”-B.E.P and “OMG”-Usher, creative freedom seems like a far stretch as to why Kelis chose to have only dance tracks on this album. The 1st single, “A Capella”-produced by DJ David Guetta peaked at #1 on the Billboard Dance/Club Charts. The follow-up, “4th of July” (Fireworks) is receiving rave reviews and being hailed as one of the best 2010 summer jams. I must admit, after hearing it a few times I found myself caught in a spell like a True Blood scene.
Those familiar with the Kelis’ older style know how to synthesize her writing style and expect her to go left when most turn right. This much still holds true with Flesh Tone. With controversy mounting in the press over her recent divorce from hip-hop icon Nas, be ready to read between the lines about why the two went separate ways. On the Intro track Kelis sings, “It’s you. I can’t run, I can’t run to you. It’s true. I give-up, I give-up on you” leading fans to think this album could be an ode to her former, but instead at the end of track 1 she sings “…We control the dance floor, dance floor, DANCE!”
It’s on the track Brave that it’s obvious to listeners the separation of the two has left the Harlem-born songbird feeling emancipated. She sings in electronica, “I’m a brave-heart,” leaving those fans familiar with Nas’ history to read between the lines here again. Song For The Baby doesn’t leave much to the imagination as Kelis cleverly gives her testimony to how strong a mother’s love can be.
With only 9 tracks listed and each one falling in the Electro-pop category, the fashion-diva should find a new following in dance music lovers. The 2nd track, 22nd Century, along with the segues between each track remind me of the rave parties you see in futuristic movies with everyone getting busy on the lowered dancefloor in a trance. Featuring producers like Will.I.Am, Benny Benassi, and DJ Ammo, fans across the pond are more likely to widely-accept this album than Americans. It is not what I expected from her, and overall it sounds like she just went a little too far left.
Kelis was always ahead of her time as Kelis Was Here proved, with Rihanna taking the rocker-style and running with it or Fergie switching it up to a rapper-slash-singer. But this latest effort is lacking something. Even though her original swag breaks through here, the Dance/Pop sound doesn’t leave me thirsting for more. In fact, we were already out of breath from dancing after the 3rd track Kelis…we’re Americans, remember?
-Krate Digga-
Sound-Savvy rates Kelis’ Flesh Tone with 1.5 out of 5 platinum headphones.
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