Kali immediately became one of my favorite singers from the first listen of her 2018 album, Isolation. The project melded together not only more genres than most R&B centric albums, but more collaborators as well. There were huge producers such as Damon Albarn and Kevin Parker, as well as smaller names that are just as acclaimed like Thundercat, Sounwave, and BADBADNOTGOOD. Even the features themselves range from rappers Tyler, the Creator and Bia to singers Jorja Smith and Steve Lacy, and I can’t forget the funk legend himself Bootsy Collins. Even though Isolation was two and a half years ago, there’s a teaser on there to what she does here on her new album.
Sitting directly in the middle of Isolation is a track called “Nuestro Planeta” with Reykon. As you can probably guess from the title, the entire song was in Spanish, and now in 2020 Kali has come through with an entire album in Spanish. Even though Kali was born in the United States, her father was from Columbia and she spent half her life there. This led to her being bilingual and after always wanting to bring the other half of her life into her music, this is the project that shows her fully diving into it head first. Spoiler alert for the rest of the review, but I really like this album and it only grows on me with each listen. But originally, I was nervous to listen to the project.
Even though the challenge of listening to an album and not understanding most of it is a bit intimidating, it wasn’t even that, it was the singles. “Aqui yo mando” with Rico Nasty was the first single and it’s a fantastic, trap infused banger. The second single showed her going into a reggaeton direction with the track “la luz” with Jhay Cortez. Reggaeton and latin trap have become one of the most popular genres in the world. Even the most streamed artist of 2020, Bad Bunny, is a latin trap and reggaeton artist. My personal problem with it is that it all ends up sounding extremely similar, especially when it comes to the rhythm. So hearing both of the singles be somewhat related to that sound, I was a bit nervous that the entire album was going to be like that sound that’s already being dominated across the globe.
I should’ve known better that Kali wouldn’t just stick to any one sound for the entire project. This project does have a couple reggaeton influenced tracks towards the end, but much of the album is full of lush, gorgeous, Latin-pop influenced songs that give us English speakers a 34 minute look into a culture we may not be familiar with. There is a decent amount of bolero influence in the album, but there’s also a lot of just pure Latin-pop and synth pop influence as well. She even does a fantastic cover of a Cuban jazz track “Que Te Pedi” and features easily one of Kali’s best vocal performances ever. She digs into her deeper register, which is something I don’t think I’ve ever heard her do, and definitely not to this extent and quality of this performance right here.
The opener to the project, “la luna enamorada”, is another successful endeavor into this sound. It’s a bit scant, but it sets the tone for the album beautifully with these layers of backup vocals and the meandering percussion and guitar line that dominate the instrumental. “Vaya con dios” is also another fantastic example of this sound, just with a bit more reverb and a slightly faster pace. It’s another example of a track that she might not have been able to pull off before, but her powerful vocal performances help make this song what it is.
Even with the lyrics being in Spanish, there are some songs on here that old fans will gravitate towards. “Quiero sentirme bien” sounds like something off of her 2015 ep, Por Vida, with it’s fast paced beat and the uplifting, synth heavy instrumentation. “Telepatia” comes next in the tracklist and carries many of the same instrumental ideas, especially the synth texture. If “quiero sentirme bien” sounds like it’s from Por Vida, this one sounds like it came from Isolation. Even though they have sounds that are reminiscent of her older music, they both fit in perfectly with the new project as well.
“Fue mejor” is easily one of my favorite tracks on the project as well. It’s got this heavy, bassy instrumental and Kali just glides over it. Her voice is so sultry and alluring on this track that when PartyNextDoor comes in, it changes the whole vibe of the song. He thematically fits the song by playing Kali’s ex-lover, but his voice doesn’t compliment the song that well. Matter of fact, on the complete opposite of Isolation, none of the features besides Rico Nasty really add all that much to their respective tracks.
This project was one that took a bit of getting used to in order to fully appreciate it, and I’m sure that I still don’t appreciate it on the level that Kali does, or that I might one day. This is a clear example of an artist making a project for themselves, and those always seem to end up being the best. When artists start trying to cater to their fans, that’s normally when the music starts to suffer. Most of the time, if there is some sort of overarching idea or emotion that an artist wants to express with a project, then it will come out better than a random collection of songs. Even if it’s something super small and seemingly insignificant like James Blake’s four song ep he made while missing dance music, that can come out better than a full length of making songs that you only made to try and please your fans. Kali clearly had a specific idea when she was going into this project, and she executed it perfectly.
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