Kelela - new avatar

Remember those squidgy toy aliens from the late ’90s, sealed inside shiny plastic eggs and floating in their own goo? In 1999, a rumour spread through schoolyards claiming they would open their eyes at midnight as the new millennium arrived. Kelela’s ‘new avatar’ sounds like that alien finally awakening. Not fully human, not fully known, something familiar reanimated in a new form.

Kelela’s sound expands into a bold fusion of R&B, alternative rock, indie, and electronic influences. Drawing on her roots in D.C.’s indie scene while retaining the futuristic sensuality that defines her catalogue, she pushes into new sonic terrain. Across the album, she explores Black femme rage, joy as resistance, misogynoir, romantic tension, and dystopian unease. Opener ‘idea 1’ sets the tone for a record where breakdown and breakthrough feel inseparable, moving between frustration and conviction over jagged, rock-inflected guitars that cut through the mix. Tracks such as ‘goin down’ and ‘crystalize’ lean furthest into the project’s punky rock-ballad territory, turning heartbreak into defiance. On ‘don’t piss me off’, garage-leaning percussion rumbles beneath ricocheting vocals and distorted synths, lending a raw, underground edge.

The album’s quietest moment arrives with ‘retaliation lullaby’. Rain sounds and gentle guitar cradle Kelela’s voice as she sings, “In my feels before sunrise,” offering stillness amid unrest. The record unfolds through carefully chosen collaborations, Fousheé brings playful girl-band chemistry, while ‘outta time’ with A.K. Paul is a sleek R&B dreamscape of throbbing guitars and silky vocal interplay. PinkPantheress proves a natural match, their voices dissolving into one another as her Y2K-inspired drum-break production weaves into Kelela’s sound world. ‘new avatar’ is a bold, hybrid statement where past and present converge into a new future.