Kelela gives the gworls a 90s club jam, with “Happy Ending”

After sending my wig across slat flats with “Washed Away”, Kelela is back to make me sweat my backup wig out to a 90s club jam.

“Washed Away” saw Kelela debut a brand new blonde / shaved hair-do, a complete contrast from the signature dreadlocked hairstyle that Kelela had since the days of her 2013 debut mixtape Cut 4 Me. But in “Happy Ending” we get a remixed do, giving T-Boz in the front and Shaolin Monk in the back.

Okay bitch.

“Happy Ending” is very much in the same vein as “Rewind” and “LMK”. All three songs are takes on the club sounds of the 90s, a theme which carried through into the visuals.

Kelela playing with her hairstyle is fun to witness, because I think so often Black women aren’t given the space nor grace to just do whatever they want with their hair, or they feel a pressure to always have it looking a particular way. With Kelela, I’m sure she probably felt that a part of her identity was tied to the hairstyle she had before. So it's cool to see her say ‘Fuck it’ and be playful. It hearkens back to the wig swapping we got in the music video to “LMK”, and also the album cover to TAKE ME A_PART, THE REMIXES, which featured a bald Kelela in the centre.

Kelela - Happy Ending | © 2022 Warp Records

Hearing “Happy Ending” randomly made me wonder what sound most people identify Kelela’s sound as. This is just a thought; but I don’t think people identify Kelela for her club bangers, even though she has a fair few of them. I, myself don’t even identify Kelela for her club bangers, and these were the songs which were my introduction to her.

Pondering this question made me think of the type of artist that Kelela is and maybe why she isn’t identified for a particular type of song / sound, but more her vibe. Kelela as an artist is very nebulous, and I find her music to be the same. Lines blur between Kelela’s slow songs, mid-tempos and bangers, because she blends so many different elements across them, namely her delivery. “Frontline“ is another great example of this. It’s almost as though Kelela’s approach to club records is a different style in and of itself.

Similar can be said for where Kelela falls genre wise. It’s easy to lump her in Progressive R&B, which I feel has become a category to throw Black artists in who do R&B songs, but also do dance, rock and other genres too. I wouldn’t place Kelela in Progressive R&B. In fact, I don’t think Progressive R&B really makes sense as a category or a genre. But that’s a WHOLE other post.

HENNYWAY.

Between “Washed Away” and “Happy Endings”, it’s seeming like Kelela’s follow up to the criminally underrated Take Me Apart is going to be business as usual. I hope we do get a couple of surprises. But I get that a bitch needs to build her brand.

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💿 Albums reviews: Take Me Apart | TAKE ME A_PART, THE REMIXES