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Jul 9, 2026‘new avatar’ is cohesive and fully-realised, but curiously it doesn’t give much away. If you want its secrets, you’ll have to listen. With that in mind, it’s both new Kelela and classic Kelela, all at once.
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Jul 9, 2026new avatar is the sound of an artist with nothing left to prove; where she heads next is thrillingly unpredictable. For now, she’s given us one of the best pop albums of the year.
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Jul 9, 2026She's sounding better than ever. The first half of new avatar leaps over emotional landmines detonated by controlled bursts of noise. "Crystalize" showcases what happens when Kelela lets her voice rip, and what happens when she uses consonants like a guitar pick on a string. The effect is epic balladeering. .... Nobody's rocking harder than Kelela right now.
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Jul 9, 2026What Kelela demonstrates on New Avatar is that R&B vocals and guitar music can and do belong together.
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Jul 9, 2026Compared to the ambient sprawl of Raven, this is a streamlined record of slinking processed guitars influenced by alt-metal, shoegaze and industrial, worked like putty into pop structures.