reviews / 2010

KELIS - Flesh Tone

Name: KELIS – Flesh Tone
Item: Flesh Tone
Rating: 7
Author: Stefano Fiori

2010 (Interscope)

dance, house

by Stefano Fiori

Emancipated and brave, that's how Kelis describes herself across two tracks on her new, controversial album. Not everyone will agree with her: for many, the new Kelis will mostly look like a turncoat, a calculating opportunist chasing an easy commercial redemption after the flop of her previous album. It's hard to say who's right (perhaps both sides are), and pointless to put her intentions on trial, but what's certain is that in recent months Kelis's life, and consequently her career, have been through major upheavals: the birth of her first child, the much-discussed (and very expensive) divorce from NAS, a new record deal (she now records for the label run label by Will.I.Am of the Black Eyed Peas, who has apparently given her free rein) and, above all, what looks like a definitive break from the genre that saw her rise and win over fans in the first place, r'n'b.

“Flesh Tone” is an all-out house-dance album produced by some of the hottest DJs of the moment, a continuous flow of beat e synth angular tracks that at times sacrifice melody in favor of a more pumped-up rhythm or more trance atmospheres, with the songs broken up by short electro-pop instrumental interludes (some of which deserved to be fleshed out further). And yet Kelis is at ease, perfectly comfortable in the role of vocalist disco shaped by whichever producer is at the helm (though maybe she never really wasn't, even back when she debuted with records written and produced entirely by Neptunes?), and her voice doesn't seem to lose an ounce of sensuality despite such an un-soulful, clinical backdrop.

The balancing act works perfectly when, with the help of the now ever-present David Guetta, she's transformed into a proud, tribal Donna Summer (the single "Acapella", which redeems the producer after so many recent misfires), or when, on "Home", she secures herself a summer floor-filler tailor-made for the clubs of Ibiza (as does "Brave", which bears the unmistakable, exasperatingly convulsive stamp of Italy's own Benny Benassi). There are only a handful of fleeting moments where the old Kelis resurfaces: the reassuring "Intro" that opens the album and finds her flirting seductively over a synth-pop bed, and above all "Song For The Baby", the only track with a seventies flavour, sunny and redolent of Justice — almost a final breath of fresh air to close out a record so saturated that it nonetheless has the great merit of never outstaying its welcome.

“Flesh Tone” is, in the end, a solid, cohesive record despite the multiple production hands involved, and less crowd-pleasing than one might have expected. It has what it takes to win over the European audience (especially the British one, which has always been her main market), but it risks sinking Kelis's standing for good in her home country, where the recent openness toward euro-dance (just think of the latest techno forays by her current label boss) doesn't yet seem solid enough to warmly embrace such a drastic shift (and indeed the album will be released in the US more than a month later, as if to first test the waters on this side of the Atlantic).

In today's pop landscape, the concept of courage seems to vary depending on latitude.

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17/05/2010

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This article is an English translation of the original Italian text by Stefano Fiori, published on OndaRock.it. It was translated with the help of artificial intelligence, under the editorial responsibility of OndaRock's editor-in-chief, Claudio Fabretti.

Read the original in Italian · About the English edition