It's as if Kelela heard my prayer. Just the other day I was listening to her breakout album Take Me Apart, wondering where the visionary artist has been. Is she well? Resting? Completely checked out of this planet? Others were thinking the same, and our soulful avant-garde goddess was listening. Today she returned to the public eye after five years of silence with the song "Washed Away," which was produced by Yo Van lenz. "A BITCH IS BACK and feeling v ⛲️after my hiatus. please TRUST the bangers are on the way. but first: how’s your heart?" she posted on Instagram.
Kelela's music is capable of both the tender tug of a heartstring and a mesmerizing chorus to get the body grooving. For her resurgence, she's chosen the former. “I love a banger, but for the first point of contact out of my hiatus, it felt more honest to lead with an ambient heart-check,” she said of the song. The track opens with spectral synths that beam in among Kelela's airy vocal improvisations. It feels like the ideal soundtrack to imagining you're arising out of a field of wildflowers, perfectly dressed, and ready to start anew. The song also feels like the perfect world-setting return and an affecting amuse-bouche for the bangers to come.
The single comes with a stunning visual by Yasser Abubeker. It was filmed "amid the elements of the Danakil Depression, which sits in the northern section of Ethiopia's Afar region," the press release reads. “I specifically want to speak to marginalized Black folk and highlight the work we do to find renewal in a world that’s built to make us feel inadequate," Kelela added. "This song is the soundtrack to the relief we find after going inward.”
Watch the visual below.
