Username: Ghost-Quartet

Album: When I Get Home: Yeah I don’t know what happened with this one, *A Seat At The Table* was so good and then this is the followup? I’ve heard it described as “an album of interludes” and I can’t disagree with that, it just feels incomplete. It’s not bad but the fact that there are people who defend it as being *great* is, in my eyes, an example of an artist’s cloud coloring perception of their actual work. If this were by some artist that no one had heard of people would say “wow there’s some neat ideas on here, can’t wait until their next project to see if they can refine them” but instead we have to act like this is the end product and the evolution when it’s nothing like that, it’s nothing of the sort.

Things I Imagined: 8.5 Perhaps it’s just because it’s first so it has my full attention but I think that this is one of the strongest songs on the album! It’s obviously very memorable (she says that one line so many times you’d better remember it by the time the song is done lol) and pleasant to listen to. In a theatre class we once did an exercise where we had to repeat the same line over and over again with different intentions and this song kind of reminds me of that, it’s like a vocal exercise or something. She gets a lot of mileage out of a single line, she presents this line in every single possible way as if it’s some kind of mantra and if she just figures out the right inflection she can conjure up the things she imagined. It’s hypnotic in a way.

Down With the Clique: 6 This sounds fine but the fact that she’s just repeating the same lines over and over doesn’t really work because she just did that on the last song. The message is nice I guess.

Way to the Show: 9 this funks

Stay Flo: 7 This starts off really promising but then it just kinda doesn’t go anywhere, I get what Solange is going for with her sound but sometimes it just ends up feeling flat. Like the payoff here isn’t very satisfying

Dreams: 4 On a different album this would be an interlude

Almeda: 6 I looked up the Genius page for this song so I could get a full grasp of the lyrics and backstory of this song and I respect what they were going for here, but unfortunately the context doesn’t really make me enjoy this on a musical level. It’s not awful but even after a few listens it’s also not something I really think I’ll ever be interested in listening to again.

Time (is): 7 I like this more than some of the other songs but it’s starting to get repetitive Solange, and I’m not just talking about the repeating lyrics thing

My Skin My Logo: 10 a SONG, this feels at home with the sparse, repetitive style that Solange chose for this project but it’s still rooted in the sounds/ideas that made *A Seat At The Table* so successful. I wish she’d been able to keep this balance more consistently because this is nice.

Jerrod: 6 Didn’t realize this ended and the next song began

Binz: 3 sounds like someone left the microphone on while Solange was playing a demo in a different room

Beltway: 4 not a song but at least it’s a pretty not a song

Sound of Rain: 5 the literal sound of rain would have been preferable, my patience with this album is done at this point

I’m a Witness: 8 I actually like this one a lot more than some of the tracks that came before it (the slightly disjointed structure works better here, the vocals are lovely, it’s pleasant sonically) but I wish she’d brought something stronger for the closer.

Album: Isolation: I listened to this around the time that it came out and I was a little bit bored by it but I think my musical palate has evolved since then and I really liked it this time around! The old school big band style mixed with more modern r&b and the other Latin influences (I’m not gonna pretend like I can name them) is a bold sound that’s fun to listen to, even if it washes the album as a whole out in my memory. There are a lot of other up and coming Latina artists like Angelica Garcia and Kaina that I think deserve some more attention but I’m not mad at Kali being at the forefront.

Body Language: 9 uh, yes please

Miami: 9 I like the weird sort of spaghetti-western/Nancy Sinatra vibes of this one, maybe Kali can snatch up some of the lost Lana fans

Just A Stranger: 9 “she don’t want love she wants hundred dollar bills” https://thebizofbaking.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/PNLD.jpg but seriously I like the lyrics of this one, they’re kinda dressed up as your typical “baddie chick” style boasts but low-key she’s digging into the desperation and fear that drives the character she’s describing to be obsessed with money, because she has to ensure her own survival above all else

Flight 22: 7.6 This starts off really promising but the chorus is kinda a letdown

Your Teeth In My Neck: 8 Really enjoy the lyrics of this one but it’s a bit flat musically, there’s a few nice hooks in there but nothing exceptionally strong and the sonics aren’t enough to carry it. The xylophone that comes in at the end kicks it up a notch though! Kinda feels like something from a musical

Tyrant: 6.8 This song sounded better once I realized that it was a duet, if that makes sense, because it made the song more interesting. There’s a cool idea for a song here but the melody feels undeveloped, which is important.

Dead To Me: 7.5 This, like, flirts with dance pop and I wish it had just gone fully in that direction because this would be a killer disco/house song but it’s just a middling… whatever this is.

Nuestro Planeta: 8 I got really into this halfway through around the time that Reykon comes in (his section is good) but everything before that is kinda a waiting game

In My Dreams: 9 I like this crunchy budget Disney sound lol, it reminds me of something that Genevieve Artadi would drop

Gotta Get Up: 5 I was listening and I was like “why don’t I remember what I just listened to?” and then I checked and it was an interlude so that checks out

Tomorrow: 10 I’m nodding my head along to this

Coming Home: 9 What’s the point of making this an interlude but then placing two tracks together so the actual track is the same length as a full song? Whatever, both of these slap but the second half is better, wish it was its own song.

After The Storm: 10 I could see this winning.

Feel Like A Fool: 7.5 I don’t know, while I like this I can’t help but feel like I’ve heard this song a few times on this album.

Killer: 9 yeah this girl should write a musical, I think she’d be good at it

Album: Take Me Apart: This was the only album I hadn’t listened to before the rate and I wish that I hadn’t put this off so much so I could have had more time with this one because it blew me away from the first listen. I kinda scored it on a curve so I might have actually given Kali a higher overall score but this was definitely my favorite!

Frontline: 10 Partially I’m giving this a good score because she had the audacity to drop that incredible IMVU music video (which I unironically love) but also there’s just something special about this song.

Waitin: 8.5 She maintains that sprawling electro pop sound but refines it into a more conventional party-friendly synthpop song and it really works. I was like “this is begging for a remix” and it turns out there’s a remix album and the KAYTRANDA did a remix of this which is an incredible idea and I do like the resulting remix but I do still kinda want a more straightforward club remix.

Take Me Apart: 9 I love how chaotic and cavernous the production is on this one, it’s like you can hear how tumultuous the emotions this relationship is giving her are. The vulnerability in the lyrics is really nice too, “take me apart” is such a violent and almost unpleasant way to describe sex but that’s what makes it feels so intimate at the same time. This is fanfic-worthy.

Enough: 8 We’ve just come off a run of three very strong tracks and this is also strong, but not *as* strong. The production is a bit overwhelming (though Kelela’s voice is a lighthouse in the fog of noise) and I wish it cut to some of the points a bit faster. Still, when she sings “it’s not enough” and those synths drone behind her it’s such a cinematic moment

Jupiter: 6 I don’t like this one that much, the production feels kind of aimless and I’m not sure that I get the point. Fortunately it’s just an interlude though.

Better: 9 Electronica and r&b are two genres that I think tend to make the definition of a “ballad” pretty blurry because they tend to have lots of songs that are slow and searing without really being what we’d think of as a ballad, but this is a damn good ballad. The lyrics are emotionally honest (there’s such cutting simplicity to the chorus) and Kelela sounds like she’s pouring her soul out, and the beat switch with the industrial clanging is a nice twist that both keeps the song interesting while underscoring the emotional journey of the song.

LMK: 7.8 I like the lyrics of this one but the production is a bit rubbery… like there’s four different production hooks here and they’re all good individually but together they just kinda make noise soup. Still pretty good though.

Truth Or Dare: 7 oh this one is sexy, I like how flirty it is but it starts to get repetitive after a while

S.O.S.: 6 I kinda don’t get this one? I mean I get what she’s going for I just don’t think it’s as musically/lyrically interesting as the rest of the album is.

Blue Light: 7.5 There’s some really lovely moments in this one but also some kind of obnoxious moments, which is definitely a risk with this kind of sound. It’s a good song but I wish it had a tighter focus and centered on the good ideas more while cutting out some of the bullshit.

Onanon: 8.5 We love some rapid fire lyrics! This song sounds like a desert vista, if that makes sense

Turn To Dust: 11 wish I could find the words to describe how this song makes me feel, this 11 will have to suffice instead

Bluff: 10 This is short but I love the sound of it!

Altadena: 8 This is beautiful so not to be that bitch but like… it could have been a little shorter

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