Kelela - Take Me Apart (LP)

Kelela’s debut album Take Me Apart arrived on 6 October 2017 through Warp, and it still feels like a door swinging open to a room you hadn’t realised R&B could occupy. She came up through mixtapes and an EP that already blurred club culture and intimate songwriting, but this is the full statement, paced like a relationship’s highs and breaks, and arranged so each song feels like a new angle on the same shifting light.

Frontline sets the tone straight away, gliding on synths that buckle and breathe while Kelela sketches the edges of a breakup with a cool, precise melody. Then LMK snaps in with its elastic bass and a vocal that flips from conspiratorial whisper to righteous call-out. It became a fan favourite for a reason. The song handles power and boundaries with wit, not sermonising, and you can hear how it would smash in a club without losing the softness that makes it stick.

The detail in the production is a draw all on its own. Jam City’s fingerprints are all over the record, and the beats favour negative space, like the room is pointed at you rather than the other way round. Title track Take Me Apart does that best, peeling back layers so the harmonies bloom in the gaps. Blue Light pushes further into the late night, vocals moving like a slow current over drums that seem to blink in and out. It is that tension between intimacy and experimentation that gives the album its life. You can dance to half of it, then you catch a lyric that lands like a private confession.

There is also a deep sense of sequencing. Truth or Dare bristles with playful menace, then Better opens a window and lets the light back in. By the time you reach Altadena at the close, her voice feels weightless, even after all the mess and self-interrogation. The arc is subtle, but you feel it in your chest.

Critics clocked it straight away. The record pulled strong notices across the board and kept turning up on year end lists in 2017, the sort of consensus that only happens when an album cuts across scenes. It also sparked a vibrant afterlife. The 2018 companion set Take Me a_Part, the Remixes invited a gang of voices into Kelela’s world, including a knockout LMK (What’s Really Good) with Princess Nokia, Junglepussy, Cupcakke and Ms. Boogie. That rework underscored what the album already hinted at, a community orbiting these songs, ready to stretch them even further.

As a listening experience, Take Me Apart rewards good speakers, and it truly breathes on wax. If you’re the kind who likes to drop the needle at dusk and let the room change colour, the Take Me Apart vinyl is a smart pickup. Those pillowy lows and glassy highs come through with extra dimension, and the quiet passages feel even more intimate. Kelela vinyl tends to vanish from shelves when it gets repressed, so if you spot it, don’t sleep. We get folks wandering into the shop asking for Kelela albums on vinyl more often than you’d think, and it is one of those titles that sells itself with a single spin.

Beyond the sonic craft, what keeps me coming back is how lived-in the writing feels. Kelela never hides behind abstraction. Even when a track tilts toward the avant side of club music, she centres patience, desire, pettiness, hope. Small words, clear lines, no melodrama. It’s the balance that recalls Aaliyah’s sleek restraint and the daring of left-field producers she has long gravitated toward, but it lands as its own language.

If you are building a modern R&B shelf and want something that threads experimental edges with actual warmth, this is essential. You could buy Kelela records online, sure, although if you are in a hurry and based here, it is worth calling your local Melbourne record store first. Shops that keep a sharp selection of vinyl records Australia wide know how to keep Warp titles in rotation. Either way, put this on and give it the attention you save for those records that feel like confidants. In a catalog already rich with gems, Take Me Apart still feels like the moment when Kelela took hold of her own mythology and let the rest of us tune in.