Given how often Kelela’s name seems to come up — and how many cooly sensual, casually visceral songs of hers you might know — it’s almost a surprise that the Solange-championed artist still hasn’t released an LP. (There was a mixtape, Cut 4 Me, in 2013, and her breakout EP, Hallucinogen, in 2015). But alas — she will, soon: yesterday, she announced that the much-awaited album is coming on October 6, and is called Take Me Apart. The news came with the release of the album’s first single, “LMK,” which you can hear below.
Kelela released a statement, shared in Rolling Stone, about how her identity and history have informed the the emotional life of the album:
Despite it being a personal record, the politics of my identity informs how it sounds and how I choose to articulate my vulnerability and strength. I am a black woman, a second-generation Ethiopian-American, who grew up in the ‘burbs listening to R&B, jazz and Björk. All of it comes out in one way or another.
(Björk, incidentally, also listens to Kelela.) Listen to “LMK”: