![]() ![]() In truth, you get rather more André than Kelis for your money, but who cares when the results are this good? 10. Produced by imperial-phase André 3000 and as good as anything on OutKast’s Speakerboxx/The Love Below, Millionaire is a fantastic track: a clipped new wavey drum machine under scattered, distorted synths and fabulous melody. Kelis isn’t particularly known for ballads, but Kaleidoscope’s heartbroken Get Along With You – a bittersweet slow-motion take on the very 1999 trend for R&B tracks driven by staccato riffs – showcases a suitably off-centre approach to the form: “Now I’m forced to roam this planet sadly,” she laments, “lonely like a loose baguette.” 11. From its opening studio chatter to its great self-deprecating gag about the artist’s limited vocal range – it’s hard to imagine any of her peers countenancing such a thing – Cobbler is a writhingly funky source of bountiful good vibes. Having often complained about her record labels, Kelis sounded genuinely comfortable on Food. ![]() ![]() She subsequently re-recorded it with then-partner Nas, but the original, featuring the Clipse’s Pusha-T, is the one. Yet it’s easily as good as her debut, as evidenced by the lurching beats and smart, repetitive hook of Popular Thug. Kelis’s second album, Wanderland, was a commercial disaster: her US label refused to release it and it flopped everywhere else. It’s great: a whisper of two-step garage in the beats, the lyrics about a collapsing relationship – at odds with the lush electronic backing. The great what-if of Kelis’s career: played on the radio, available online as an illicit rip, never officially released, the Skream-produced Distance was supposed to be the first single from an unfinished “trip-hoppy … darker” album. Her guest appearances are outside this list’s remit, but throughout her career, Kelis has collaborated with dance producers – Timo Maas, Moby, Richard X, Crookers – which helped to explain why her own left turn into house music on 2010’s Flesh Tone worked: poppily melodic but tough, 4th of July (Fireworks)’s commercial failure was surprising. With its husky vocal soaring over a tapestry of strings and horns and minimal piano, Forever Be is utterly joyous. Four years after reinventing herself as a house diva, another left turn: Food was produced by TV on the Radio’s Dave Sitek, its sound an idiosyncratic, eclectic, leftfield take on soul. ![]()
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