Stream Kelis New Lp, Produced By David Sitek

We're not sure how, but Kelis is one of the few artists to have survived the fat, sticky fingers of David Guetta and Calvin Harris pawing at her career with credibility intact. Maybe it's the all-to-rare feeling that she's using the producers rather than the other way round, or maybe she just gets them to up their game to something approaching respectable (case in point: the Guetta produced Acapella is probably the least horrific thing the gurning French terrorbot has ever been involved with). Whatever, a new Kelis album is always going to be worth a look – even more so when it's been signed up to Ninja Tune and produced by TV on the Radio mastermind David Sitek. 

It may come as something of a surprise that two artists so feted for their futuristic tendencies have decided to record an album heavily indebted to classic 60s pop soul. Food, as it is called, is full and greasy with fatbacked horns, warm string sections and funky breakkbeats. Sitek's production layers up telltale tics and flicks under the analogue fuzz, and occasional stacatto passages hint at his usual space age aesthetic, but the majority of the record is played straight, Sitek's 13 piece big band providing a constant, daytime radio reference point. Kelis's deep alto is as strong as ever, and whether this is the album fans were expecting, it's an album that feels right for her to make.

Have a listen on the stream here