Kelela to send us into Valentine’s Day bald and with our shell suits sweated out, with the release of her second studio album, Raven

We knew Kelela was coming when she first sent a cluster of wigs across the Danakil Depression with “Washed Away”. But it’s official. Kelela is releasing her second studio album on February 15. The album is titled Raven, which Kelela cites is ‘a 15 track deep-dive into facets of dance music that have always excited me’.

A bitch is either psychic or right on time. Maybe both. Because when the talk of Black dance music got that bit louder as a result of Beyonce’s Renaissance, an album my mind when straight to was Kelela’s TAKE ME A_PART, THE REMIXES. A curated album from a Black woman, made of up dance remixes, featuring production from queer Black folk. Kelela already done had herses. But for how great, nostalgic and progressive TAKE ME A_PART, THE REMIXES was AND STILL remains, it released to dust. I fucking adored that album and still run songs off of it. So to hear that Kelela’s new album is somewhat in that same vein, but as a full studio album of all original material is great news.

I suspected that Kelela’s next album would probably be dance focused from “Happy Ending”. And strangely enough, it wasn’t the sound that made me think this, but Kelela’s hair; because it saw Kelela playing with the styling of it in a way which reminded me of the cover of TAKE ME A_PART, THE REMIXES. I wouldn’t have thought nothing of it with anybody else. But Kelela’s visuals have always been intentional, and there was greater intent with what she was releasing and how she was presenting herself from “Washed Away” onward. So I couldn’t help but connect the dots. And now having seen the Raven album cover, which also feels like a reference to TAKE ME A_PART, THE REMIXES due it featuring a 3D scan of Kelela, my reach wasn’t in complete vain. It could still all be coincidence. But let’s just act like it was all part of Kelela’s plan.

Kelela - Raven | © 2022 Warp Records

1. Washed Away
2. Happy Ending
3. Let It Go
4. On the Run
5. Missed Call
6. Closure
7. Contact
8. Fooley
9. Holier
10. Raven
11. Bruises
12. Sorbet
13. Divorce
14. Enough for Love
15. Far Away

This album seems like it will be a necessary reminder of the fact that Kelela has ALWAYS done dance music. But it’s not a sound that she’s known for or that she’s ever found under, because she is exclusively categorised under Progressive R&B, which has become the dump category for Black dance artists. Over the years there has been this mainstream consensus that dance music is a white genre, and that anybody who is Black that does music which isn’t stereotypical R&B, is automatically Progressive R&B, even though their music is very much dance or electronic. This isn’t even just a white thing though. Because there are many a Black folk who categorise dance music as this white thing. But Kelela slammed her hand down on the table and said ‘NOT ON MY WATCH’. In the album inlay she states:

I started this process from the feeling of isolation and alienation I’ve always had as a Black femme in dance music. Despite its Black origins, Raven is my first breath taken in the dark. An affirmation of Black femme perspective in the most of systemic erasure and the sound of our vulnerability turned to power. This one’s for y’all.

BLIPITTY-BLOPITTY-BLOOP.

Raven is released physically and digitally on February 10, 2023. And this news also came with the release of a new song “On the Run”.

Side note. “On the Run” is more of what Crystal Kay’s “No Pressure” shoulda been. Bitch better take notes.

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