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Album Review
by SaschaS
4-12-2003
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| Kelis rejoins major league with 'Tasty' |
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Kelis: 'Tasty'
(Virgin)
Kelis: a feisty babe’s derangement
Only a quartet of years ago it looked like Kelis were going to be as big as… well, Missy Elliott. Displaying similar force, charisma and innovative streak, combined with rainbow hair-do, she looked unstoppable with debut ‘Kaleidoscope’ that was home to the breakthrough hit ‘Good Stuff’. Not long afterwards certain changes within her record company meant her second album, ‘Wonderland’, was patchily released around the Globe that completely bypassed her native US shops.
She also toured with a rock backing band rather than trying to reproduce the disc’s futuristic R&B sound that resulted in parting company with Virgin and moving to her producers, and long-term friends [she was even romantically involved with Pharrell Williams at one point], The Neptunes’ label. Although she is now re-signed with Virgin, ‘Tasty’ bears Star Trak logo in the US. And, of ‘Wonderland’ she now says, “Let’s pretend it never happened.”
And, we should because this is return-to-form. The Neptunes are behind five tracks and one of these, ‘Milkshake’, is so odd and outré, a thrilling opposition to everything on the washed-out mart (aside Missy Elliott, perhaps); no big surprise that the single leaped up the Billboard Hot 100 Chart, from #12 to #4, or landing at the UK charts’ #3. The song’s already nominated for a Grammy in the Best Urban/Alternative category.
This woman is known for outspoken sexuality and ‘In Public’ extols the joys of fresh-air love-making, helped along, alike in real life, by her boyf Nas. Subtlety is not Kelis’s middle name but salacious is… A rather rare but welcome jaunt into reggae realm is not enough when there is a general formulaic approach and tad too standard R&B feel that blows through these songs.
The other jewel on the LP is ‘Millionaire’, a mad rush of synth-pop dropped by OutKast’s Andre 3000. You wish she had worked more with this gentleman… ‘Tasty’ it surely is but contained within rather select tracks… Kelis Rogers’s third disc presents only partial freshness, i.e. minority of corkers is mixed with a lot more routine workouts that sound like an attempt to appease the widest public.
With America reportedly having shipped 500K albums, it doesn’t appear that Missy E’s crown has slipped much further away and it is going to be a tad more tricky to dethrone the Gap advertising woman. Whilst Justin Timberlake has replaced Eminem as the favourite face-of-bland-reworking-of-US-Urban sounds, pop turns more asinine, Kylie, Britney and Madonna genre-hop and more rappers are bling-blinkered every day, Kelis appears much more real.
7.8/10
SaschaS
4-12-2003
Kelis’s album ‘Tasty’ is released 08 December 2003 by Virgin
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