Wanderland

by

Kelis

Edit

That this record, after a critically-sound and respectable run of sale of Kelis's debut album, should be made unavailable in the States is a shame. It's very telling about the music industry and the sorry state of its last remaining scraps of actually good mainstream art (Maxwell, Glenn Lewis, Sade, Jill Scott, et al) that an artist can craft a still reasonably decent record and it still not get released because the status quo is so gratingly profitable. That Kelis could put more personality and production value into a record that still adheres to her previous outing's winning formula and still not get any play from the tin ears of the industry borders on criminal. If Michael Jackson can sue his company over woes garnered from his almost-decent record, then Kelis could have hit the lottery by comparison.

The record's tracks still retain their chrome-bright beats and thundering bumps, though they seem a little less fresh than they did on the first album. Some of it sounds the same, but not annoyingly so, and her daring lyrics (her strength) and voice catapult most of the tracks above the norm, which for her was already a bit left-of-center.

Get it. If you're a fan, you're already missing out on the kind of stuff you said you liked when you bought her first one. If your'e not a fan, listen to it first, then buy it anyway. It'll make you seem cool and un-average, but not in the weird way cubist art or mismatched socks do.

Before I got on this site, I didn't know that people bought Kelis' albums, or wanted to buy them, for that matter. Her first song, "Caught Out There" (with the chorus, "I HATE YOU SO MUCH RIGHT NOW!"), didn't really get people running to the record store, but I bought the album anyway and I found it to be surprisingly brilliant. So good that when I heard about Wanderland, I rushed to download it (hey, I had no choice, the album didn't come out in the U.S. yet!!!) The Neptunes are as much the stars on this album as Kelis is and at times they show that they still got it.

Instant standouts are her first single, "Young, Fresh N' New" and "Scared Money", as she shows us why she is worthy in the music biz. One of the most innovative songs is the rock-influenced "Perfect World", complete with a loud guitar and live drums, and it sounds like Kelis works well with rock songs. Musically, this is the best song because it breaks up the monotony of the rest of the album (more on that later).

But less exciting moments come when Pharrel (of the Neptunes, who produced all or most of the album) starts to share the mic with Kelis on songs like "Shooting Stars". This is not to say that Kelis herself is the best singer in the world (in fact, she sang better on her first album), but in front of Pharrel, she's a diva. On this album, Pharrel should have just stuck with producing.

Wait, actually, that's exactly the problem. We know that Kelis and The Neptunes go great together like peanut butter and jelly, but what made her first album a treat was that no one really heard that much of The Neptunes yet and their production was therefore fresh and new. But from 1999 to now, The Neptunes have produced for everybody and their mama and as a result, their beats have been played everywhere so much that their production on this album sounds played-out. We can't really blame this on Kelis, but it would have been nice to have an album that didn't have so many songs that sound like "I'm A Slave 4 You", "Superthug", or "Hot in Herre" (all produced by The Neptunes).

Bottom line, if you like Kelis AND the Neptunes, then this album is for you. But if you don't like repetitive production, no matter how good Kelis is, you might just play Wanderland once and then never again.