Album: Food
Source: http://www.npr.org/2014/04/
Pre-listening Notes: Kelis will probably always be remembered for the song Milkshake. Up this point, that is just one song on five pretty well received albums, though, with this being album six for her. She mixes a R&B, soul, dance, pop, and a hip hop into her music. Her first two albums were both produced by The Neptunes, but then since she has diversified the production credits a bit on her next three albums. Now, with this album she has gone back to a single producer, Dave Sitek, who is a founding member and has produced all of the TV on the Radio albums, so I am interested to see the tone of this record. I am seeing that there is more electronic stuff mentioned for this album and even a trip hop feel. So, here goes.
Initial Reaction: The opener, Breakfast, starts off with a nice beat and after an opening segment some horns. There is some funk influences in this and I'm loving these horns. Vocally, Kelis sounds great and the sound in the headphones is fantastic, the production on this if great. Nice upbeat, dancy opener, hope this sets the tone for this album.
Random Thoughts: The second song, Jerk Ribs, which I think is the first single, opens with some kids talking that kind of meld into a chant to start the song. This song seems to be a love song to someone. There are more horns in this. Also, I think NPR actually mislabeled these first two songs. There is a line in this song that says "maybe we'll make it to breakfast' in this song, so I'm guessing the first song was Jerk Ribs and this is actually Breakfast. Either way, both of the two songs have been pretty upbeat and awesome and makes excellent use of the horns that I've mentioned. I will now mention that all of the instrumentation that is being used on this is pretty great, as I am pretty sure I've heard a violin and maybe some organ in there too. Floyd slows it down a lot and the soul singer in her comes crashing out. This is pretty great. The song, Bless the Telephone starts out with an nice, simple guitar, and has Kelis singing along with a male voice. I am not sure who it is, but the upon looking it up on the internet, this is apparently a cover by a British musician, Labi Siffre. Biscuits n' Gravy is another one that uses piano and Kelis's voice in pretty great harmony.
Final Reaction: This was excellent. I had sort of lost touch with Kelis over the last couple albums, but this one has brought me right back. There is no trip hop (as it sounds like that sound was scrapped for a more classic soul sound), but there is a fine blend of soul and R&B, and almost a bit of a indie rock influence in there. The horns run rampant all over the album, but somehow are not overused and fit in perfectly. There is a nice variety in tempos and styles to keep this interesting throughout the album. I would not only listen to this again, I would even consider buying a copy of this.
Final Grade: 9.0/10
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