On the title track, Kelela sings about the whirlwind rush of ordering an ex to come over and break your emotional and sexual walls back down. “It’s topping from the bottom,” she says. “When you demand somebody take you apart, then you’re the boss.” A frequent collaborator, songwriter Mocky, came up with the album’s title, but its message is completely Kelela’s. “It’s so strong,” she reflects. “You must have a lot of confidence to say that comfortably. It feels risky, I feel my heart pound a little bit harder, but that’s who I am.”

ADVERTISEMENT

Producers Jam City and Arca have a big presence on the album, in addition to other heady beatmakers like Bok Bok, Total Freedom, and Aaron David Ross. Kelela was immersed as an executive producer on the record, working hands-on with each of them. “I’m asking each person to give me their go, and then I put it together the way that I see fit,” she explains. “I am designing each track.” Under her leadership, they crafted a nuanced sonic world that mirrors the depth and layers of Kelela’s pointed storytelling. Each song resonates with a sense of both physical and emotional space, full of sounds that caress the ear like a lover.

“The whole record seems warmer, more intimate, but also less hurried than some of the past tracks,” Jam City says. “Kelela’s taking her time, and I love hearing that. I’d hit a different phrasing by accident and she’d be like ‘Go back, go back! That’s what I’m looking for, do that again,’ and sure enough, that would be it. She was basically my musical director. She knows exactly what she wants.”

There are also wistful moments throughout the album that pay homage to her R&B influences. When Kelela played me “S.O.S.” for the first time during a studio visit in July, I swirled my index finger and painted every note of her closing melody out in the air. I told her this is a song that I could see me and my girlfriends attempting to harmonize to with our eyes closed. “Solange said the same thing: ‘All the black girls are going to love this part right here,’” she laughed. Kelela’s friend, the singer Jessica Chambliss, helped her create that moment: “‘Girl, give me Tweet,’” Kelela says she told her. “I just want to go there.”

ADVERTISEMENT

After finishing the album, however, she had a moment of worry — none of the songs blatantly reference her blackness. Kelela was frustrated for a bit, but she soon realized that all that she bears is informed by that slice of herself. “It’s a very black thing to be tender and vulnerable on a track. And I didn’t really process that until a little bit later. It’s silly to even think that there’s only one way that we can express our identity.”