Though it took nearly half a decade to complete, Kelela’s debut studio album has finally arrived.
The singer released Take Me Apart on Thursday night, more than four years after she dropped her first mixtape Cut 4 Me and nearly two years after her Hallucinogen EP. During a Beats 1 interview with Zane Lowe this year, she discussed the album’s creation as well as her intentions behind it.
“I’ve been working on this project for four years-plus. So it’s been a minute and I finally feel like it’s actualized and my vision has manifested itself,” the D.C. songstress told Lowe right before premiering the album’s lead single “LMK.” “I guess the pursuit for me was about sort of having three boxes checked: One of them is like the songwriting box; the second box is, you know, in terms of sound design and production; and then the third box is vocal performance […] It’s essentially a lot of things that, to me, feel very classic but also new. That’s literally what I was setting out to do, is actually just give you another permutation of something that you’re quite familiar with.”
The 14-track project includes production by Jam City, Arca, Ariel Rechtshaid, and Kwes. It includes the previously released singles “Blue Light,” and “Waitin,” as well as the “Frontline” track that was recently featured on the HBO series Insecure.
You can stream and download Take Me Apart now on Apple Music and iTunes. You can also check it out below via Spotify.
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