In "The Letter," Kehlani refuses to name a subject until the last possible moment. Many of the songs on You Should Be Here channel the same heady mixture of longing and uncertainty. She's addressing a lover, but that line could apply to anyone with whom she is closely connected: siblings, parents or friends - they're drifting apart, and she doesn't get why. Kehlani doesn't waste much time: after a short intro, she delivers the album's first cooed line, "I'm looking right at you, but you're not here," immediately suggesting the unknowability of intimacy. It's an intense, focused exploration of all, or nearly all, the relationships the singer is involved in, both romantic and familial. Even indie rock, which traditionally wanted nothing to do with R&B, now regularly borrows from the likes of Sade.īut the ambitious, self-assured new album from the Oakland singer Kehlani, You Should Be Here - a follow-up to the well-received Cloud 19 mixtape from 2014 - suggests that R&B singers still have plenty to contribute.
Aspiring singers are beset by chic, Aaliyah-indebted pop like Banks and Broods, rappers crooning hooks, vocalists laying out powerful melismatic runs on EDM tracks. As more types of music pilfer the genre's signature delivery - and its singers - for their own ends, it's tougher for R&B artists to stand out.
#KEHLANI YOU SHOULD BE HERE FULL#
Rap was full of seemingly out-of-nowhere success stories last year, but the same was not true for R&B. She keeps telling people to follow her lead, too-just refer to the album’s title. That Kehlani manages to breathe new life into these sounds and romantic musings is inspirational. It’s this unabashed ambition that makes You Should Be Here resonate long after one has internalized its motivational urges ("Can't nobody love somebody that do not love themselves") and tender observations on the mechanics of relationships (see the wistful "Unconditional"). But the album also strays to lots of other places: into jazzy, new jack swing-influenced R&B, straight-ahead devotion hymns (penultimate stomper "Bright"), capital-P pop ballads (closer "Alive", which would not sound out of place in a current adult-contemporary rotation). When some of these songs soar in their choruses, like on "Wanted", the title track, and the synthy, bubble-gummy kiss-off "How That Taste", Kehlani’s full-throated vocals and live-band sound recall '90s R&B groups like Total. On the stunning "Wanted", she sings, "As a woman/ When you are broken/ You make a choice to stay down or go in," but the chorus, one of resounding triumph, begins with the declaration, "He makes me feel wanted/ Like no one has before." Kehlani weaves an emotional, stirring thread through her songs that mostly feels joyful, even when she’s lurking on Instagram ("Jealous") or being vexed by a new flame ("Yet"). You Should Be Here’s dynamism and generosity is something to be amazed by, especially considering Kehlani is all of 19 years old.
The beating heart at the center of You Should Be Here forgives some of these dips into mawkishness. And, much like Ocean, when Kehlani veers toward the maudlin, somehow the sincerity of it all redeems itself. Kehlani, along with right-hand-man producer Jahaan Sweet, shares Ocean’s auteuristic vision and plainspoken eloquence. If there’s a contemporary comparison to be made, it’s Frank Ocean. Kehlani has little in common with other former-child-stars-turned-singers Zendaya or Tinashe (Kehlani and her band made it to the finals on "America’s Got Talent"), and she has little in common with the music of cool, casually misogynistic R&B bros, and in spite of a connection to PARTYNEXTDOOR and hailing from Oakland, neither of those facts figure much into her music, at least on an obvious level. Kehlani spends most of You Should Be Here switching between telling various dudes to get their shit together and the rest on a mission to inspire humanity. The song’s lyrics might be the biggest red herring of all. It’s a fascinating song, and only in the most superficial ways does it suggest anything about You Should Be Here’s loftier goals. The song is a sensual shuffle that channels SZA, Jhené Aiko, and Kelela, from spacey, hesitant vocals, to a slowed-and-pitched-down rap (from the typically nimble Chance the Rapper), to the lyrics-it’s a straightforward ode to lust, all about desire and longing and waiting for the moment where wanting and having your partner collide. As red herrings go, first single "The Way" off Kehlani’s first official album, You Should Be Here, is a doozy.
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