Kelis: Flesh Tone – TNT album review
If in doubt, call Will.i.Am. Arriving three years after global hit Milkshake, Kelis Rogers’ fourth album Kelis Was Here was a flop, its worldwide sales just a quarter of the total shifted by its predecessor. So Rogers retreated, licked her wounds and phoned the Black Eyed Peas frontman. Flesh Tone is the result.
The good news is that the album’s similarities with the Black Eyed Peas are scant. The baffling array of credits make it difficult to figure out exactly who did what, but Will.i.Am seems to have left the heavy lifting to the likes of David Guetta, who’s behind the chart-conquering pulse of Acapella.
The bad news is that Kelis’s desperation to return to the charts doesn’t always yield interesting results.
The jumpy pop of Scream, another Guetta production, is terrific; but the likes of 4th Of July (Fireworks) and the super-cheesy Home start out with overfamiliar beats and don’t do anything novel with them. A very mixed bag.
3/5
Review: Will Fulford-Jones
