\u201cIf there were a fan competition amongst artists, I feel like I would win,\u201d the actual Kelela tells me when we meet at a recording studio in east Williamsburg, New York. \u201cNo shade to nobody!<\/p>\n
The genre-bending R&B artist\u2019s new album finds fresh focus for her uncompromising vision, blending soul, sex and shoegaze<\/p>\n
More than most musicians on a typical promo cycle, Kelela<\/a> has been appearing on my social feeds in increasingly surreal combinations. In one clip<\/a>, she blows kisses to an enormous crowd of onlookers on the streets of Soho New York; another sees her posing for fans<\/a> against a fog-strewn background somewhere between South Central<\/a> and survivalist video game Silent Hill. In the video for idea 1<\/a> the singer saunters down a corridor with windswept silver hair, looking like Storm if the X-Men movies had been directed by Hype Williams. In a widely circulated tribute\/parody, the track is synced uncannily well to a cut of RuPaul in the 90s<\/a> strutting her stuff to the song\u2019s throbbing guitar, while sporting a remarkably similar sleek, platinum blonde wig.<\/p>\n \u201cIf there were a fan competition amongst artists, I feel like I would win,\u201d the actual Kelela tells me when we meet at a recording studio in east Williamsburg, New York. \u201cNo shade to nobody!<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/8d0be23a1ead79de3b865c30ff5205cd966a7714\/405_0_2500_2000\/master\/2500.jpg?width=140&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=cbba6f956a3e2c0437b5f8c60520dac7\" "\\"\u2018We")
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