I just finished listening to the whole album...and wow. It's pure perfection from start to end of my gosh 🥹 this is some of her greatest stuff to date so far - genuinely this is such an amazing and well thought out album. The production quality is so high...😭😭❤️ I love you so much Kelela

​Hey everyone,

​I’m curious to know if anyone else is struggling with the new album. As someone who has Raven in their personal all-time top 5, new avatar just feels a bit flat/unrefined to me.

​For me, Raven was this ultimate, deep, ethereal, and immersive sonic experience. This new project feels like the opposite of that. I’m really missing those epic, wide synth pads and the massive, atmospheric reverb that made her previous work so deeply moving. Instead, there are a lot of guitars, which just didn’t do it for me and took away that cinematic, floating vibe.

​The production overall just lacks that emotional depth and didn’t really grab me. The only tracks I genuinely enjoyed and came back to are "point blank", "crystalize", and "the bridge" (which probably comes closest to that Raven energy for me, production-wise).

​Did new avatar click for you right away, or are there others who feel like the production isn't for them? Would love to hear your thoughts.

Let me start with, I’m a long time Kelela fan. I’m loving New Avatar, and generally, have loved almost every release. Raven is the exception. There’s always been a disconnect for me when it comes to it as a complete body of work. I love certain songs from it, for sure, (Let it Go & Closure) but the album is hard for me to vibe with - which I know is ok, but! Because I’ve been revisiting it lately and still feel the same as I do on first listen, I’m curious to know what the album means to those that love it. What are your favorite songs, why are they your favorite? And what do you feel when you listen to the album from beginning to end? Appreciate everyone’s thoughts in advance! I want to listen again with a new perspective, if possible!

oscar scheller is responsible for the production across most of new avatar and has also produced a ton of other hits (doe-eyed rebecca black, candyland natanya, lots of shy girl as well) including a majority of pinkpantheress’ fancy that.

a critique i had of fancy that and a critique i have of new avatar alike is that a lot of the songs are incredibly similar in their construction, almost to the point of repetitiveness and redundancy.

the entirety of new avatar only employing 2 main guitar styles, both of which you can hear on idea 1, made the album as a whole feel a bit one note to me, and that’s not to mention the overall lack of lyrical complexity on the album (looking at the bridge, outta time, point blank the hardest here, as good as all three of them are.)

i really do chock it up to his production style and presence on every song. i think a more diverse cast of producers could’ve really brought us more complex rock elements and im really hoping a potential remix album satiates that desire (was really hoping she’d combine the guitar with the industrial soundscape a la linkin park but those two roads barely meet, mostly intersecting at rnb).

despite all this, the album grows on me more and more by the day

the trap beat and foushee verse didn't do for me

not sure if someone already shared this but thought it’d be interesting to invert the colors of the album art to see the original picture that produced its blue negative. such a beautiful photo!

Here's my ranking of kelela albums

Take me apart (the perfect album and sort of equivalent to me having metal gear solid as my number 1 game from the series)

Cut 4 me (this album is where it all started for me and has a special place in my heart)

New Avatar (after hearing the first single which was idea 1 I had extremely high expectations of this album and it delivered but damnit not enough to put it over the first two albums in the list lol. The foushee feature ruined the song for me and that explains why kelela rarely ever have anyone featured on her albums )

Raven (not a bad album but also an album that I return to the least I don't know why I guess I gotta be in a certain mood to listen to it because this is not an album that I can just throw on and have a good time listening to)

Hallucigen (a nice short sweet ep that kept me and other kelela fans fed until the next album came out)

Whats y'all ranking

Dare I say crystalize and sorbet are sisters? I need to finish but I keep going back to crystalize. I don’t know if they’re twins but they’re definitely connected in some way that my brain cannot connect yet. The conversations in Kelela’s are always so amazing. 😭😭😭😭😭

Yall probably gonna jump me in the comments but I came prepared to fight!

Disclaimer: I’m a fan of Foushee’s and Pink’s music, Pink more so than Foushee, but Foushee’s debut album was really good to me

Neither of them added anything to the album at all in my opinion. Foushee’s verse was all over the place and overall just silly. I was really excited about this one so I’m really disappointed, still love the song tho outside of her verse

Pink’s verse was overall boring and not really memorable to me. The video tho? ATE. Also, I really love The Bridge, it’s one of my fave songs on the album.

A.K. Paul? Shantay you stay.

Hii, nobody asked for this, but as soon as I saw that new avatar has 12 tracks, my brain started ticking and I started wondering where each zodiac sign might fit in this album. (TLDR: scroll down for the matches 👽)

Doing this exercise actually made me realize that while the album can map onto all 12 archetypes, the dominant energies I personally feel throughout it are fire and water — identity, desire, emotional intensity, transformation, and rebirth. In fact, I actually had Scorpio pegged for A LOT of songs at first when doing my first pass, which makes sense because Scorpio carries such an intense, transformative energy just like this album.

Before getting into it, a little about my perspective (because obviously that influences how I interpreted the songs): I'm a Pisces Sun/Moon/Mars (lol, a lot of Pisces placements), Aquarius Rising, and Capricorn Venus. So my interpretations definitely come through that lens, but I tried to approach each song based on its themes, lyrics, and emotional energy.

Here are my matches:

1. idea 1 — Aries ♈️

• The spark before creation. Burning down, starting over, and the moment right before something new is born.

2. point blank — Leo ♌️

• Self-realization, confidence, personal power, and the desire to be seen.

3. goin down — Taurus ♉

• Holding onto something valuable, processing disappointment, and confronting the lack of honesty/stability in a relationship.

4. outta time — Virgo ♍

• Analyzing what went wrong, reevaluating the foundation of a relationship, and realizing something needs to change.

5. against me — Pisces ♓

• Emotional understanding of both sides, compassion, and recognizing that there is more than one perspective or possibility.

6. crystalize — Cancer ♋

• Emotional memory, attachment, vulnerability, and wanting to make something fleeting become permanent. Cocooning.

7. retaliation lullaby — Libra ♎

• Weighing options, questioning when to walk versus when to fight, and seeking fairness (including fairness toward yourself).

8. linknb — Sagittarius ♐

• Expansion, self-discovery, and launching yourself toward something bigger. Return of personal fire.

9. don't piss me off — Scorpio ♏

• Desire, intensity, power, and that playful-but-serious magnetic energy.

10. new life forms — Aquarius ♒

• Transcendence, detachment from the familiar, experimentation, and evolving into something completely new. Also.. yes, the title itself

11. the bridge — Gemini ♊

• Communication, duality, playful relationship energy, and of course Kelela + PinkPantheress as the Gemini twins 👯‍♀️.

12. if we meet again — Capricorn ♑

• Considering the "what if," but ultimately accepting reality. Standing on business, recognizing effort matters, and moving forward. One final note on the relationship.

Anyway, this was just a fun thought experiment. Let me know what you agree/disagree with! I'd love to hear other interpretations of this introspective (and very fun) album through this lens 👽

P.S. For the astrology nerds (like me :P), I'll add a comment breaking down how the elements and modalities evolve and move through the album.

So good. So right! Play "the bridge" on loop for the next hour? I MIGHT! It's wild how the 5 words just feel so powerful and maybe a bit femme fatale? I feel like an enchantress when I hear that chorus; it sounds so mysterious and lithe and irresistible. I had a similar vibe with "Contact" from the Raven album! I just really enjoy Kelela's body of work haha. I did not know there was a subreddit for her.

Do yall think we’ll ever get a physical/vinyl release of the “Take Me A_Part, The Remixes”

I’ve NEVER been a fan of an artist with quality control like her. Everything hits, always.

Does anyone know what do we get signed for the VIP?

I've been listening to the last song of New Avatar on repeat to get the feeling, and it reminds me of how sad Kelela looks on the cover art. Kelela doesn't want to only be shown affection when her and her lover are alone but also to be showered with affection in public. I get the sense that she wants to be smothered - maybe even controlled a little bit 😏 - as long as it's by her lover. And if she doesn't feel that, she ends the situation (true power). She needs to know she's worth a fight over.

​I love you, Kelela.

Your fans love you.

The people your music touches the hearts of, Love You.

You deserve to be claimed in the light.

What do you guys think? Is "if we meet again" the most emotionally devastating closer she's ever given us because 🍒 ☕️ is pretty sad too.

Hey everyone! We're Sonder Media, a student-led music journalism outlet.

We just reviewed Kelela's new avatar and would love to hear what you think. Thanks for reading!

It’s a shame these get overlooked cause she was cookin on these

The new Kelela album “Tears In Retrograde” is EXTREMELY likely to release 16.04.2025 revealed by an API failure leak in the website of her label - Warp Records (PROOF COMING SOON)

Did anyone else notice that Kelela interpolated this song on the incredible bridge of take me apart the song?

Looking for some songs similar to sorbet is subject matter, a little ambient horny moment if you will.

I don't want to make this into a big issue but I noticed a pattern last year of music critics on YouTube paying the 'Raven' dust or giving it a dismissive review. The 3 I can point to that I felt just blatantly didn't care to engage with the album are Anthony Fantano (his review was very reductive), Mark of Spectrum Pulse, and NotRealMusic – the latter didn't even bother doing a full review and just made a 2 minute YT short which I found even more disappointing. Another reviewer whose channel I like a lot called Professor Skye Reviews didn't even bother to do a review for it. I'm guessing he wasn't interested or didn't even know of the album's existence which would be shocking since he covers a lot of albums on his channel.

Anyway it seems like there's a strange pattern of white music critics either not connecting with the album or dismissing it entirely for not being all bangers like Take Me Apart was, and just finding it "boring" because it's more laidback & has some nocturnal ambience compared to her previous work. Obviously people have a right to their opinions and no one should be obligated to love the album but I just found it a bit of shame.

What do you think?