Kelis first released her slinky David Guetta produced single Acapella onto the web in November of last year. I was excited about it back then and I'm still loving it now. A clear crisp slice of dance-pop her gruff vocals sound perfectly at home on what is still one of the most uplifting pop songs I've heard in awhile. The forthcoming Flesh Tone album is sure to be a bit of a stormer.
If that wasn't enough shes' just released the video for the track after releasing a teaser last week. Playing with tribal imagery and slowly bursting with colour it's a joy to watch. Loving the varied looks especially the diamond headpiece/glasses and the image of Kelis floating in a field of stars. Lovely. You can watch the video in full on her official site.
On top of this more tracks from the album are beginning to surface. Live videos of Kelis performing 4th of July have been going around for awhile and it's equally enjoyable with the same sense of euphoria as Acapella. This week at the Winter Music Conference she also performed another new track 22nd Century, produced by Free School. It's great stuff with the straightforward hook "We are the stars" lodging in the head on first listen. This video of Kelis performing the tracks live is great fun, she's clearly enjoying performing the new stuff live (whether she is actually singing or not is questionable though!)
WMC RAW // Kelis from Arcade44.tv on Vimeo.
(Video found on The Prophet Blog who are well worth checking out.)
She also hit the stage with Benny Benassi to perform Acapella and a track she recorded with him called Spaceship according to MTV News, which you can hear below. Somebody had a busy weekend! (thanks to Ultimate Kelis for the video)
The merging of dance beats and club sounds with mainstream US popstars is nothing new and with everyone from Three 6 Mafia to Christina Aguilera taking on electronic sounds, it seems like there's plenty more mainstream electro pop headed our way in the next few months. As pointed out in the recent Billboard cover story on David Guetta (whose gone from ignored on the US pop charts to producer du jour) the synths and electronic sounds that have filtered throughout pop have only gotten bigger.
Kelis though seems to be putting her own spin on things. Reflecting on motherhood, moving on from a divorce and still being one of the few genuinely quirky popstars left gives her an edge many others don't have. It's exciting to see where this album heads. In the meantime watch Acapella slowly take over the charts. Is it too early to start talking about songs of the summer?
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