Kelela - new avatar

‘idea 1’, the first single released from this third Kelela album, ‘new avatar’, takes inspiration from Octavia E Butler’s Parable of the Sower - the post-apocalyptic speculative fiction that imagines a woman who absorbs pain and pleasure. Embodied in an avatar as referenced by the title, Kelela is keenly aware the current geopolitical climate appears torn from a dystopian novel; “Feels like there ain’t no way up / The way it’s going down,” she sings over the ambient shoegaze of ‘goin down’. It’s a record that encourages complete immersion within the simulation, and finds comfort via drenching in pain and pleasure anew and without distraction.

The album’s dystopia is portrayed vividly: “Hear my fears before sunrise,” she sings on ‘retaliation lullaby’, a spiritual successor to the rainy, Afrofuturist metropolis of 2023 predecessor ‘Raven’. Later, ‘outta time’ - which features A. K. Paul - is prophetic in its anticipation of annihilation, with its darkly industrial, moonlit production. Meanwhile, on the trance-y ‘point blank’ - packing in sharp and uncomfortable, near irritated synths - Kelela irks at her own naivety and self-sacrifice in the face of male emotional immaturity, but raves and rages in astute observational skill: “The more I pour, the more you reap / And I’m too spent to weep,” she sings.

Simultaneously, in fully plugging into the world around her, connection becomes paramount as reprieve. Standout ‘new life forms’ (with Fousheé), for example, is extraterrestrial escapism, a glowing dream pop tour-de-force, uniquely bubbly compared to the wider Kelela catalogue. Later, the PinkPantheress-featuring ‘the bridge’ describes near-telepathic sex; the importance of pure connection is lovingly simulated, painting a scene of transcendence. Much of these songs’ desire for intimacy demands immediacy, of synthesis amid a nightmare reality that’s no longer speculative. “Subject: me and you / Location: my place,” she commands, a voice over airwaves, on the bratty garage cut ‘don’t piss me off’; “Time: now.”

At points across ‘new avatar’, the presence of pop vanguard Oscar Scheller - of recent note being his PinkPantheress and Ashnikko collaborations - is certainly felt: ‘new avatar’ is a tighter offering than its predecessors, landing more speedily and securely in its ideas. Yet, across its whole, Kelela’s staple sci-fi ambience still shirks any effort to be pinned down. It’s a natural sequel, as Kelela ascends into lush alternative R&B, a careening into pleasure that doesn’t sacrifice her inspired and scorned lyricism. “I don’t want the music to be a distraction from what’s really going on in the world,” she says. “I want it to help you get into it.”