Tuesday, January 7, 2025
HomeMusicKehlani: Crash Album Evaluate | Pitchfork

Kehlani: Crash Album Evaluate | Pitchfork


On Kehlani’s final album, 2022’s blue water highway, the L.A.-based singer-songwriter dove into the comforts of affection through ethereal guitar pop. It was a slight adjustment to their method following albums rife with heated R&B and moody ambiance, a brand new wrinkle reflecting a maturing sensitivity to tales of affection misplaced and received. On Crash, Kehlani’s fourth studio album, they flip as soon as once more, this time towards a seize bag of genres that replicate the dizzying ups and downs of want and self-examination. Whereas it usually feels like Kehlani is attempting on a sequence of flashy outfits to see which one suits greatest, it’s nonetheless exhilarating when Crash dials up their signature swagger.

For Kehlani, the titular crash symbolizes a sudden, temporary spike of emotion. The album evokes that depth via freewheeling music that roves between types, often throughout the similar music: buoyant dancehall, trap-inflected R&B, and country-tinged ballads are only a few of the flavors Kehlani whips up. Midway via opener “GrooveTheory,” they change from girl-group croons to stomping come-ons with the clicking of a radio dial. “Let’s make a film/Then come and present me the sequel,” they purr, providing a straightforward inroad to Crash’s frisky perspective. On the equally slow-burning “Sucia,” Kehlani will get an help from Jill Scott, who reveals up in sultry spoken-word mode, and Puerto Rican rapper Younger Miko, who slides on the music’s beat with slinky ease. It’s a moody spotlight that depicts Kehlani within the depths of lust: “I don’t need Miami, I would like Medellín/Take you from the occasion to the trampoline,” they urge.

That target want programs all through most of Crash, lending its greatest songs a flirty levity. On “What I Need,” Kehlani threads a chip-tuned Christina Aguilera pattern with entice hi-hats and thundering bass, giving it a darkened glower that ratchets up the bravado. It’s one of many stronger, extra deliberate pattern selections on Crash, more energizing than a lot of the nostalgia bait that runs rampant in up to date pop and R&B. “After Hours” achieves an identical flex, rewiring the riddim popularized by Nina Sky’s traditional “Transfer Ya Physique” right into a breezy plea for an extended evening with a lover; it’s a featherlight, upbeat reinterpretation that doubles as an skilled showcase for Kehlani’s vocals, which throughout Crash sound extra syrupy and relaxed than ever.

When Crash slows down, the outcomes are extra blended. On the pared-back ballad “Higher Not,” Kehlani reaches for a country-tuned wistfulness that treads too near faceless folk-rock. “Vegas,” with its keening, ’80s-nodding guitar solos, suffers an identical destiny and concurrently falls into cliched songwriting (“What occurs right here stays right here”) that winds up sounding like a advertising and marketing marketing campaign. It’s emblematic of a few of Crash’s much less imaginative songs, just like the “crying within the membership” motif that runs via the refrain of the dancehall-tinged, Omah Lay-featuring “Tears.” The lyrics can really feel like an afterthought, even when Kehlani’s sheer charisma and honey-smooth supply makes them go down straightforward.

Kehlani recovers on “Deep,” a spotlight that unfurls a ramification of bass-heavy psych-rock to take inventory of their tumultuous life story. That includes background vocals from household together with their daughter, the music recollects Rihanna’s cathartic, conflicted ANTI, with a careening refrain that rides on Kehlani’s trilling, emotive supply and heavy, skull-rattling beats. Tracing an arc from sleeping on a concrete flooring to present-day success, it’s the sort of sharp, introspective work that colours Kehlani’s greatest music: a welcome counter to a few of Crash’s excesses.

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