![kelis food album kelis food album](https://media.pitchfork.com/photos/5929aced5e6ef959693219c7/1:1/w_320/2f3ecea0.jpg)
The most high-profile of these gigs was a mid-evening set on Wednesday (March 12) at the NPR Music show at Stubb’s, one of the festival’s most consistent and well-attended showcases. The menu included jerk-BBQ goat ribs, in addition to duck confit sliders with a ginger sesame glaze, shredded beef sliders with a cherry BBQ sauce, and coleslaw with golden raisins and slivered almonds.Īs for her new songs, many of which have soul food-related names (“Cobbler,” “Fish Fry,” “Biscuits ‘n’ Gravy”), Kelis previewed the brass-tinged tunes at a small handful of notable shows throughout the week.
#Kelis food album free#
Thursday and Friday afternoon, a truck emblazoned with Kelis’s face rode around Austin giving out free gourmet eats, with the R&B singer tweeting the vehicle’s location and often serving up the food herself. Rarely do SXSW publicity stunts feel as natural as this: a forthcoming album titled Food, a single called “Jerk Ribs,” and a new Cooking Channel show, all promoted via food truck. shows in 30 years, attention must be paid to Kelis’s food-themed efforts. Sometimes it doesn’t work - typically because the shows aren’t high-profile enough or the stunts aren’t clever enough to break through the SXSW clutter - but there have been varying degrees of success in recent years, Fiona Apple in 2013 and Devo in 2009 being the gold standards.Īlthough ’80s new-wavers Spandau Ballet were angling to be the comeback kids this year with their first U.S. If it’s sauce that Kelis makes, Food is the kind of stuff worth slathering on every meal.AUSTIN, TX: Kelis’s duck confit sliders bring all the boys to the yard.ĭown at South By Southwest, attendees often are reintroduced to familiar faces angling to mount big comebacks and reinventions. Food isn’t a calculated move to maintain chart status it’s an album that just sounds - and feels - good, regardless of time and place.
![kelis food album kelis food album](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/3f/2d/03/3f2d03bfb1140534842cf5ce4982b43e.jpg)
And on “Cobbler,” the grooves run deep, hand-claps and horns backing some of the album’s sweetest vocal harmonies.įifteen years removed from her breakthrough single “Caught Out There,” Kelis has entered another important phase of her career: the one in which mainstream concerns have dramatically waned. Not that she doesn’t get incredibly funky on her journey: “Jerk Ribs” throbs with a deep funk rhythm and Afrobeat horns, underscoring Rogers’ hypnotic rasp - at once a guiding force for the track as well as a crucial instrument in its expansive arrangement. It sets the tone for the record with its open-hearted verses, Rogers ringing in the festivities with earnestness and affection: “ I wanna say thank you, you’ve been more than just a man.” And it’s through the metaphor of food that Kelis explores an entirely different kind of nourishment, a thread of love and family weaving in and out of each of the album’s 13 tracks. Leadoff track “Breakfast” is a satisfying helping of neo-soul nutrition, brimming with positive vibes and sumptuous instrumentation. Right off the bat it’s apparent just how different a record Food is than Flesh Tone. In contrast to the EDM-heavy sounds of her 2010 album Flesh Tone, Food has a soulful and rich sound that mirrors its comfort-food presentation, which can partially be attributed to producer David Sitek, and partially to the live instrumentation that gives each track its stick-to-your-ribs robustness. Flavor’s always been an integral tool in Kelis’ repertoire, and with Food, she merely translates that into slightly more literal helpings of hearty melody.
![kelis food album kelis food album](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0105/4542/products/kelis-food2_small.jpg)
And that album’s runaway single, “Milkshake,” brought all the boys to the yard, as you’ll recall. Her 2003 album was, in fact, titled Tasty. “I don’t know what Paul Newman’s situation is,” Rogers told the New York Times, “but I make sauce.”Īs career shifts go, Kelis’ didn’t come without a few hints early on. Rogers is, in fact, a graduate of Le Cordon Bleu Culinary School, and has since launched a line of sauces, called “ Feast,” which prompted an inevitable comparison to another entertainer famed for his entrance into a savory product line.
![kelis food album kelis food album](https://townsquare.media/site/625/files/2014/04/Food-300x300.png)
Most of the songs on the album do, indeed, have something to do with culinary concoctions (“Jerk Ribs,” “Breakfast,” “Biscuits ‘n’ Gravy,” etc.) - which coincides all too perfectly with the announcement that Kelis has launched her own cooking show, “ Saucy and Sweet,” on Cooking Channel. Food - Kelis Rogers’ first for Ninja Tune - isn’t merely a title, it’s a defining theme for this stage of the R&B artist’s career. Long before the first note of Kelis‘ Food entered listeners’ ears, the album already felt like just like one small piece of a much grander marketing campaign.