A familiar buttery voice backtracked by a fast-paced beat that is simultaneously soft and delicate. This is how Kali Uchis opts to start her recently-released fourth studio album, Orquídeas.
In ‘¿Cómo Así?‘, Uchis performs with a surprisingly high register and flowing bilinguality, setting up the following thirteen tracks in a perfectly appropriate manner: a blend of styles and surprises incoming from the American-Colombian singer.
Through past hits like ‘telepatia’ and ‘Moonlight’, Uchis flaunts her power in singing solo through her distinctive cloud-like music full of clever lyrics (not to mention, unbelievable voice). Orquídeas, at its heart, is very curious. It gives audiences renewed takes on these classic, lulling songs. Among them are ‘Heladito’, ‘Diosa’, and ‘‘Te Mata’—all ranging in tones of story-telling from very light-hearted to rather femme fatale. However, it is in the features that the album begins to shine, a testament to the singer’s collaborative range. Peso Pluma adapts his traditional style to cater to Kali’s soothing delicacy in the third track, ‘Igual Que Un Ángel’. Meanwhile, ‘Muñekita’ explores Dembow and suitably brings on El Alfa and JT. She proves her ability to keep up with a more intense sound, but this tenth tune tests too many rhythms; none of which last long enough to sound coherent. Certain one-liners perk the attention but often felt like a dissonant attempt at a soundbite (like the off-putting “chiki chaka” repetition). In addition, there are two other interesting feature tracks featuring Rauw Alejandro in ‘No Hay Ley Parte 2’ and Karol G in ‘Labios Mordidos‘. These songs are essentially Reggaeton, both bringing a pump of confident Latine attitude to the album.
There is one thing that seems clear from the get-go: the album brings on Kali Uchis’s typical flirtiness with a much more explorative and daring tone. The singer presents a renewed flexibility, testing the waters of at least three new genres (her attempt at merengüe in ’Dame Beso // Muevete’ made my Dominican heart flutter). A common critique in her previous works is that the layered synth and dreamy bass can sound quite similar; Orquídeas proves this to not be the case. Even if the album could be more organised, there is excitement in the chaos that looks optimistic for Kali Uchis’s future endeavours. In its whole, Orquídeas sounds like she had a good time creating it and, most importantly, is fantastically fun to listen to.
“Kali Uchis” by Pemberton Music Festival is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0.