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Weaving psych rock and shoegaze textures into her mellifluous R&B ethos, Kelela’s new album turns to guitars at a moment fraught with social and emotional tension.

In a climate where plenty of artists prefer to cloak their

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reference material in secrecy, Kelela draws a refreshingly complete map. She’s so effective at communicating her musical ideas because she’s willing to share exactly what she’s studying for inspiration. For the past 13 years, she’s nurtured this curiosity alongside a deep sense of familiarity with her core audience, bringing them with her as she’s fused R&B vocals into multiple musical traditions: East Coast club, drum’n’bass, ambient, and her hometown D.C.’s go-go. When I interviewed the Maryland-raised singer about the remix version of 2023’s Raven, she was reading Amiri Baraka’s landmark 1963 work Blues People. “It’s making me feel very affirmed in my practice. The bridge-building and world-connecting that I’m doing,” she said at the time. She’s the quintessential music geek, visibly giddy to demonstrate her place within the pantheon of Black musicians across generations and...

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