Through an amalgam of bossa nova, reggaeton, doo-wop and R&B rhythms, Uchis, whose smoky timbre has drawn comparisons to jazz vocalists such as Billie Holiday, deftly lays down the foundation for what it means to ground oneself in the age of overstimulation. Isolation, the Colombian-American songwriter's first full-length album, is one of the most commanding - and endlessly-listenable - pop statements to emerge this year. She helmed direction of her videos, cultivated working relationships with collaborators such as Juanes and Kaytranada and refined her ear for the complexities that popular music can encompass. Since releasing her Drunken Babble mixtape as a high-schooler in 2012, Kali Uchis has built her career with the exacting eye of a creative director.
In an over-the-top synth-pop kiss-off, she cuts the ribbons keeping red balloons tethered to the floor, delivering darkness with twangy glee: "I wrote this 'cause I feel ten feet tall / I know you don't ever wanna see me ball." Tierra Whack wraps searing critiques of the industry and doubts about herself and her direction in a remarkable economy of words and music and visuals that recognize her own short-attention span, but also reflect our own. In one minimalist dirge set at a Chinese take-out, she compares her swagger to hot wings ("Salt, pepper, ketchup and hot sauce / Fry hard cause I do not like soft") and mourns the death of a friend, her hardness hindered by a broken wing. Released as 15 one-minute videos straight to Instagram, Philly rapper and singer Tierra Whack gives instant gratification its playfully surreal platform. Sure, Beyoncé and Janelle Monáe have dropped sweeping audiovisual albums that reconfigure narratives about themselves and how music is presented, but nothing quite infiltrated the people's swipe-happy medium like Whack World.
Unable to keep speed with the change both language and music spew, artists are just trying to stay a step ahead. Likewise, art has become unpredictable, blitzed and rewarding in bursts of noise and color as we hurtle toward information saturation. Language can be so extraordinary, yet insufficient, a flaming arrow shot into a rainstorm.
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