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8.0/10
Colombian-American R&B icon Kali Uchis has returned with her new album 'Red Moon In Venus', following her critically acclaimed 2018 release 'Isolation' and 2020 release 'Sin Miedo'. This album further proves that Uchis is one of the most consistent artists in music today.
Kicking off the album is "in My Garden...", a short vibe-setting intro with naturistic noises and what sounds like Kali sending a message to someone, reminding them that she loves them. This intro quickly and smoothly goes into "I Wish you Roses", the first single to release from this album. Luscious, airy, spacey, dreamy--this song is what you'd picture Kali Uchis to sound like. This track is like laying down on the softest pillow, surrounding you with subtle and pretty harmonies. "Worth the Wait" offers up a nice bass, groovy drum beat, and pretty strings. The harmonies are wonderful at the end, and Omar sounds solid. The ending, however, is a bit awkward as it ends mid-note, causing the transition into the next track to sound unclean. "Love Between" could offer up more lyrically, but at least it is vocally nice and has a soulful bassline and all-around lush production. "All Mine" is similar; nice vocal layers and beautiful keys, but nothing too stand out. "Fantasy" is a decent listen, containing dancey drums, a nice groove, and a solid performance from Don Toliver; I was a fan of the vocal production as well on this track. The track "Como Te Quiero Yo" gives us hints of 'Sin Miedo', with beautiful vocals and melody from Uchis, gorgeous harmonies, and dreamy synths hovering eerily in the background. "Hasta Cuando" wasn't as impressive, it's just a decently plushy shortcut, with good vocal mixing, but not really much to write home about.
"Endlessly" is where the album began to pick up again, with a wonderful combination of drums and bass, and lovely buried synths, adding a bit of a synth-poppy feel to the track. "Moral Conscience" contains some of Kali's best vocals on the album, accompanied by punchier drums that still nurture that R&B feel to them. The synths at the end are the cherry on top. "Not Too Late" has a hard-hitting bassline, again with solid vocal production, and I thoroughly enjoyed the little switch to Spanish rapping. The lyrics are nothing too special, just classic lovesick songwriting (ex. “not too late to admit you love me”). The synths on this track give off a really satisfying spacey/dreamy feel. "Blue" is one of the stand-out tracks on the project, as it's instrumentally layered beautifully, with gorgeous horns in the background, a nice touch of what sounds like a maraca in the beginning, and a mysterious and enchanting melody from Kali. "Deserve Me" follows, one of the more underwhelming tracks, with good driving hip-hop-like drums, sounding like any other generic pop/R&B cut. "Moonlight" is another favorite of mine; it's such a plush and tranquilizing track. Kali's vocals and harmonies put you in a trance, the instrumental is gorgeous, the bass is funky, the drums are perfectly and subtly mixed, and that sparkly wind-chime-sounding synth is an amazing touch. The project closes with "Happy Now", which is a weird bubbly, and upbeat transition from "Moonlight", catching me off guard a bit. I enjoyed the last half of the track more than the first, and she displays solid vocals. It's an all-around ok closer.
Although 'Red Moon In Venus' has its moments where the spotlight falls off of it, it's still a solid R&B project with moments of greatness and great production, proving that Uchis will continue to put out consistently solid music. However, I'd love to see her branch out and experiment more with her production sometime in the future, as she seems to be very comfortable with these textbook R&B sounds.
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