NUMBER TWENTY-TWO
It took me far too long to get around to listening to this album after it came out but after listening just once, I knew it'd feature somewhere on this list. In at number 22 is Kali Uchis with her debut album Isolation.
Before this year I'd only really listened to "Divine" and "Tyrant" and so knew the sound of Kali Uchis' voice but I wouldn't say that I was her biggest fan at this point. It wasn't until I heard "After The Storm (feat. Tyler, The Creator and Bootsy Collins)" earlier this year that I actually kept her fixed on my radar. This track has featured on a large number of my playlists this year - so silky, and so catchy. I can't tell you the amount of days I woke up with it already stuck in my head.
My favourites right now are ever-changing - "Miami (feat. BIA)", "Just A Stranger (feat. Steve Lacy)", "Your Teeth In My Neck" and "After The Storm". The ongoing theme of Kali's dealings with coming to America to "make it", and exploring her feelings of homesickness come through strongly and create a really captivating narrative across the whole album - something that I was worried it wouldn't be able to do given the length of the overall record. However, my one criticism would be that despite how good her voice sounds, it's not the most memorable vocal I've heard recently. Easily recognisable but doesn't quite stick in my head like Ravyn Lenae's voice does for example. With that said, Kali Uchis does have a sort of soft nostalgia to her voice that can have the listener swept up even before the chorus and whilst I do seem to prefer her songs with feature artists/collaborators, she does know how to carry a song solo.
I often say that sometimes "the more cooks, the merrier" applies when it comes to music and in this case it hits the nail on the head. Collaborative work comes from Damon Albarn, BADBADNOTGOOD, Kevin Parker and Thundercat to name just a few of the people who contributed to this debut; with this line-up the album was almost fool-proof. Isolation is an amazing building block in Kali's music career - I'm just hoping it's onwards and upwards from here.
Check out the album that dropped in at number 22 last year here.
Before this year I'd only really listened to "Divine" and "Tyrant" and so knew the sound of Kali Uchis' voice but I wouldn't say that I was her biggest fan at this point. It wasn't until I heard "After The Storm (feat. Tyler, The Creator and Bootsy Collins)" earlier this year that I actually kept her fixed on my radar. This track has featured on a large number of my playlists this year - so silky, and so catchy. I can't tell you the amount of days I woke up with it already stuck in my head.
My favourites right now are ever-changing - "Miami (feat. BIA)", "Just A Stranger (feat. Steve Lacy)", "Your Teeth In My Neck" and "After The Storm". The ongoing theme of Kali's dealings with coming to America to "make it", and exploring her feelings of homesickness come through strongly and create a really captivating narrative across the whole album - something that I was worried it wouldn't be able to do given the length of the overall record. However, my one criticism would be that despite how good her voice sounds, it's not the most memorable vocal I've heard recently. Easily recognisable but doesn't quite stick in my head like Ravyn Lenae's voice does for example. With that said, Kali Uchis does have a sort of soft nostalgia to her voice that can have the listener swept up even before the chorus and whilst I do seem to prefer her songs with feature artists/collaborators, she does know how to carry a song solo.
I often say that sometimes "the more cooks, the merrier" applies when it comes to music and in this case it hits the nail on the head. Collaborative work comes from Damon Albarn, BADBADNOTGOOD, Kevin Parker and Thundercat to name just a few of the people who contributed to this debut; with this line-up the album was almost fool-proof. Isolation is an amazing building block in Kali's music career - I'm just hoping it's onwards and upwards from here.
Check out the album that dropped in at number 22 last year here.
