With great anticipation, Kelela's debut album emerges as an epic portrait of an artist spanning the past and future of
R&B. In her hands, however, the genre knows no boundaries and so Take Me Apart exists as an absolutely singular and
fearless addition to a canon of recent classics. From her very earliest work, honesty and vulnerability have been
cornerstones of Kelela's art - even when clad in the armor of the avant-garde electronics she so deftly inhabits - and
Take Me Apart sees her double down on both the emotional intensity and resonance of her message as well as the sonic
seeking she is renowned for. On 2015's accled Hallucinogen EP, Kelela swept listeners along in the rush of ecstasy
and the melancholic vapor trail of a hopeful, but ultimately doomed liaison. Hallucinogen would prove to be a turning
point, and The New York Times would name it's single, "Rewind", one of the "25 Songs That Tell Us Where Music Is Going".
The EP's oversized impact would ignite a period of kinetic worldwide live shows culminating in Kelela crisscrossing the
globe on tour with The xx. In parallel with this, 2016 and early 2017 would see Kelela grace a handful of crucial
records as a feature vocalist - from longtime ally Solange's majestic A Seat At The Table , to Danny Brown's immense
Atrocity Exhibition and most recently, the star-studded Humanz from Gorillaz. These appearances would be tantalizing
signs leading the way to Take Me Apart. Amplifying the ideas explored on Hallucinogen , here Kelela treats relationships
and their effects like a Matryoshka doll, unveiling layer after layer to find herself at the center. Expressing an
honest vision of how we navigate dissolving ties with each other and yet remain sanguine for the next chance at love,
the emotional ricochet is traced across the album's narrative. Take Me Apart stands not only as an intensely personal
chronicle, but also a defiant and turbulent statement direct from Kelela; "Despite it being a personal record, the
politics of my identity informs how it sounds and how I choose to articulate my vulnerability and strength. I am a black
woman, a second-generation Ethiopian-American, who grew up in the 'burbs listening to R&B, Jazz and Björk. All of it
comes out in one way or another." The process of crafting Take Me Apart embraced the approach of widely collaborative
R&B, hip-hop and pop production while roaming a strange and wonderful path. Working with a cast of peers, Kelela
deconstructs many results of their collaborations and builds them back up into pieces of a cohesive whole, effectively
orchestrating these multitudes in aid of her singular vision. "It's this tapestry I've knitted together that attracts
different types of listeners and challenges them at the same time, often within the same song. That's what I want to
bring to my entire catalogue" says Kelela. Testament to this approach, the album opens with a stunning trio of high
points from the low-slung mechanized swing of 'Frontline' to the kaleidoscopic splendor of 'Waitin' - by which point
you've been pulled straight into the tale Kelela is weaving, and the warped and chaotic beauty of the title track before
dropping into 'Enough' which sounds as if it could have been transmitted from a neon-lit jazz club in Akira's Neo-Tokyo.
The timeless, zero-gravity ballad 'Better' sees Kelela at her most unadorned - baring her soul to a nameless other over
subtly transforming piano and synth textures while first single 'LMK' is all staggering club swagger that manages to
span the past 20 years of innovative R&B while still exploring another dimension of possibilities. These songs typify
the melding of classic song-craft and inventive production approach at the album's core, but it's here where things take
yet another exhilarating turn. 'Truth or Dare' has the brittle snap and vocal twists of a Neptunes track while 'Blue
Light' sees Kelela weld her sweeping pleas to the warped sonic palette of Grime, pointing the way forward to a possible
future of cybernetic soul. Now we are swept into the slipstream of a pair tracks in 'On And On' and the otherworldly
grandeur of 'Turn To Dust', which conjures images of the powerful and iconic diva of Besson's The Fifth Element; and
it's a short trip to the unforgettable pneumatic gospel of album closer 'Altadena', a perfect uroboros link back to
'Frontline' to begin the saga all over again. At this point you're left with the feeling that this trip through Take Me
Apart is one you'll be making many more times.
