On Kelela‘s third album new avatar, the fieriest moments on the front half are enough to carry the record, even if its strongest aspect–volcanic distortion melting into liquid beats–vanishes after Track 8.
Release date: July 10, 2026 | Warp Records | Bandcamp | Instagram | Website
Without a doubt, indie R&B singer-songwriter Kelela Mizanekristos, mononymously known as Kelela, has always been deadly serious about her artistry. The previous two studio albums that she released on Warp Records cemented her status as an innovator, a darling of the most far-reaching music critics. 2017’s Take Me Apart, in particular, houses “LMK” and “Blue Light”, two of her songs that I still think excel at melding left-field electronica with the subtlest of vocal hooks. With Raven, released in 2023, Kelela diversified her output with a record influenced by breakbeat and UK garage and earned Mizanekristos additional accolades.
The way I see it, Kelela‘s music is firmly rooted in modern R&B, but her indie approach has been evident all the way through, which brings us to her latest full-length, new avatar. On this LP, her indie approach is evident in the music itself, adding in guitars that bend her low-key sound into psychedelic new positions. “idea 1” initiates these flirtations with indie rock as soon as you hear gently strummed verses. It then also flirts with shoegazing textures during the chorus, enticing you for what’s to come.
Luckily, “idea 1” is not the only rocker on new avatar. This musical marriage of guitar strums with skittering electronica continues throughout the album, like with “goin down” and the BANKS-esque, bass-heavy “outta time” featuring A.K. Paul. Unluckily, once the record’s shortest track–the scurrying “linknb”–fizzles out, those distorted atmospheres that seem to function as the glue keeping everything together suddenly vanish by the final third of the album. From “don’t piss me off” to the last track, “if we meet again”, the mood is far less laid-back as splinters of UK garage drum grooves and a couple guest features liven it up some. Sure, this will appeal to some people, perhaps even more than the stellar first half, but the disappearance of Kelela‘s rock sensibilities–not to mention lame-ass rap clichés from Fousheé like ‘I took a shroom or two, Mario and Luigi, gone / Couple baddies on the beach, we took them titties out‘–make for an uneven listen.
Arguably the best quality about Mizanekristos is that the music she writes as Kelela is always of top-notch caliber, and so is her voice, dripping with tenderness. ‘Pin me down / Twist the knife‘ the star singer urges in that typically aching R&B vocal style on “crystalize”, possibly the best track on new avatar. Much like with those guitar beds on “goin down” that reach My Bloody Valentine levels of ‘distorted‘, I feel as if this moment was inspired not just by deliciously dreamy pop but also gently thudding post-punk drums, which, judging by that description alone, you’d think it were a lost Chainlacing song. In reality, though, the song is just as informed by emotive alt-R&B tropes, which makes for an intriguing combination before plateauing with the ambient centerpiece of new avatar: rain-streaked “retaliation lullaby”.
Obviously with this new record, Kelela and her co-producer, Oscar Scheller, set out to craft something that sounds fresh, something that continues to inspire and innovate even after listening to it a thousand times over. Does it lose steam by the bottom third? To me it does. Then again, perhaps dropping the most unique aspect of the LP was merely to liven up the mood just a little for the pop-heads? Whatever, man. I honestly don’t care when the first half of new avatar is that banging. With its near-volcanic layers of guitar distortion erupting over liquid lava beats, synthetic bass rumbles and acidic lyrics, Kelela has once again outdone herself as an authentic voice and as a trailblazing artist. I highly recommend this!
