new avatar

<b>The alt-R&B star’s metamorphic sound solidifies on an ambitious work that redraws rock’s boundaries.</b> Produced by Oscar Scheller (PinkPantheress, Lily Allen), Kelela’s third studio album laces a fistful of complementarily clashing influences—classic rock, shoegaze, UK garage, neo-soul—into the club-adjacent R&B soundscapes first showcased on her seminal 2017 debut <i>Take Me Apart</i>. Album opener <b>“idea 1”</b> sets the tone, beginning with an ambient ripple that splits apart to create space for a wall of distorted guitar. <b>“crystalize”</b> plays out the bargaining stage of heartbreak-induced grief over the kind of melodramatic chords that invoke thoughts of dry ice and wind machines, while <b>“linknb”</b> floats its soulfully ethereal melody on a jangling, alt-rock riff. In the final third, Kelela pivots towards unadulterated electronica—thumping drum ’n’ bass rhythms pulse through <b>“don’t piss me off”</b>, and PinkPantheress collaboration <b>“the bridge”</b> brings airy harmonies to a late-night garage mood—before scaling back on icy, vocal-led ballad <b>“if we meet again”</b>. An atmospheric sprawl of genre-splicing innovation that redraws the boundaries defining rock music, <i>new avatar</i> is Kelela’s most ambitious work yet.