Last week, Kelis's second album Wanderland was released to American streaming services and iTunes for the first time, much to the surprise of everyone, including Kelis herself. In 2001, labels still thought it make sense to roll out album releases in different countries at different times, and released Wanderland in parts of Europe and Asia, but then never got around to releasing it in America after the failure of the single "Young Fresh 'n New." So now that all 6 of Kelis's albums are on Spotify, it seemed like a good time to make a playlist of her deep cuts.

Kelis deep album cuts (Spotify playlist):

1. No Turning Back
2. Roller Rink
3. Mars
4. I Want Your Love
5. Suspended
6. Popular Thug f/ Pusha T
7. Scared Money
8. Perfect Day
9. I Don't Care Anymore
10. Flash Back
11. Suga Honey Iced Tea
12. Rolling Through The Hood
13. Attention f/ Raphael Saadiq
14. Marathon
15. Living Proof
16. I Don't Think So
17. Till The Wheels Fall Off
18. Segue 2
19. Home
20. Bless The Telephone
21. Forever Be

Tracks 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 from Kaleidoscope (1999)
Tracks 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 from Wanderland (2001)
Tracks 10, 11, 12, 13 and 14 from Tasty (2003)
Tracks 15, 16 and 17 from Kelis Was Here (2006)
Tracks 18 and 19 from Flesh Tone (2010)
Tracks 20 and 21 from Food (2014)

Kaleidoscope was the first album produced entirely by Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo (the first that was officially released, anyway, since Clipse's 1999 album Exclusive Audio Footage was shelved), kicking off the last 20 years of The Neptunes and their various associates and proteges shaping popular music. I really love that whole early wave of albums from the Neptunes/Star Trak camp, the debut albums by Clipse, N.E.R.D., Kenna, Spymob and Kelis are all so great and unique. The music that those folks made later on gets a lot of love, too, but to me there's something special about what they came out of the gate with, and the things that Pharrell and Chad chose to use their industry clout to promote after making hits with established stars.

I think it's usually kind of a smug cliche to say someone didn't sell more records because they were "ahead of their time," but I definitely feel like that was the case for Kelis. People didn't really know how to categorize her or tried to fit her into the R&B category when it didn't necessarily suit her, she was kind of more the Grace Jones of her time than someone who fit into the R&B landscape. Her voice can have a sandpaper quality to it sometimes that I don't love, but a lot of times it's hard to imagine someone with a more conventional voice sounding as good on these songs.

As a fan of Kaleidoscope who never heard the follow-up in all the years it was only available as an import or bootleg, it's really great to finally listen to Wanderland (a longtime fan of the album, Tyler, The Creator, singled out "Scared Money" and "Shooting Stars" as his favorites last week). I think it might be her best album. Of course, some of it I had heard before, because "Flash Back" also appeared on Tasty (as "Flashback"), and "Popular Thug" was remixed with a Nas verse on the 2003 compilation The Neptunes Present... Clones. But the stuff I've never heard before is great, and in a way it's the best argument for Kelis's versatility and The Neptunes' genre-blurring vision. Wanderland features "Perfect Day," a collaboration with No Doubt that's as good as anything from Rock Steady, an Eazy-E interpolation with Fieldy from KoRn on bass, and a cover of "I Don't Care Anymore" by Phil Collins originally recorded for the Collins tribute album Urban Renewal (there was also a live cover of "Smells Like Teen Spirit" on the Japanese release of Wanderland).

The first 12 tracks on here are all Neptunes productions, some of the best beats they ever made, but then Kelis started to branch out with other producers and collaborators. And one of the things that I notice about the songs with other producers on Tasty and Kelis Is Here is that it feels like guys like will.i.am and Raphael Saadiq were trying to fit into her previously established sound and give her Neptunes-ish beats (although I really like the Saadiq tracks on those albums, he's really spanned every corner of modern R&B and has excelled at practically everything). There's some cool outliers, though, I wish she did more Max Martin/Dr. Luke guitar-driven stuff like "I Don't Think So."

Kelis finally broke completely out of the template of her early records with her two very different albums earlier this decade. Flesh Tone was a full-on EDM/house record with production by David Guetta and Benny Benassi, and Food had an earthy old school sound with live instrumentation by David Sitek from TV On The Radio. With that kind of pendulum swing, I think she's finally kinda gotten out of the Neptunes' shadow and stepped away from the kind of commercial expectations that got Wanderland shelved, so it's exciting to think of what else she could do in the future.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 10, 2019 at 9:30 PM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.