Review Summary: The peaks are great and it introduced one of the most charismatic stars of this century, but she’s gone on to do better.
Kelis burst onto the scene with ‘Caught Out There’ aka the ‘I Hate You So Much Right Now!’ song. Obviously, it’s the screaming that first gets your attention, followed by the Neptunes production with its video game sound effects, but ultimately it’s Kelis’ performance that makes it more than a novelty. In the verses, Kelis deploys a whole range of voices to get across what is a deceptively complex narrative - hectoring, righteous, sexy, funny, vulnerable, potty-mouthed –all the time remaining supremely charismatic.
‘Kaleidoscope’ is very much a debut album – it has lots of variety to show off Kelis’ talents without quite working out what its focus should be. The end product is quite uneven. Apart from ‘Caught Out There’ the only two great songs are both ballads, although that term doesn’t really do either of them justice. ‘Suspended’ sounds at once familiar and like nothing you’ve heard - a song sung from a coma, with a strange, almost hallucinogenic production. ‘Get Along With You’ is a straight-up classic – it starts with synths and strings before giving way to a surprisingly banging rhythmic track which brings out the underlying emotional turmoil. Even the slightly awkward lyric and spoken ‘dear diary’ section only highlight the sincerity of Kelis’ performance.
The rest of the album is far from bad – there are easily another 4 or 5 tracks here which are worth hearing, including good-but-generic fare like ‘Good Stuff’ or more eccentric songs like ‘Mafia’ and ‘Mars’. Over the course of a whole album though, the Neptunes’ production techniques get a bit waring. ‘Roller Rink’ and ‘Gameshow’ are gimmicks in search of songs; even a fairly straightforward ballad like ‘In the Morning’ has some guy breathing heavily in the background - I guess to build up a sexy atmosphere but for all the world he just sounds like he’s dialled into a conference call and forgotten to put his phone on mute.
So, ‘Kaleidoscope’ is definitely worth hearing – the peaks are great and it introduced one of the most charismatic stars of this century, but she’s gone on to do better.
