The alt-R&B star’s metamorphic sound solidifies on an ambitious work that redraws rock’s boundaries. Produced by Oscar Scheller (PinkPantheress, Lily Allen), Kelela’s third studio album laces a fistful of complementarily clashing influences—classic rock, shoegaze, UK garage, neo-soul—into the club-adjacent R&B soundscapes first showcased on her seminal 2017 debut Take Me Apart. Album opener “idea 1” sets the tone, beginning with an ambient ripple that splits apart to create space for a wall of distorted guitar. “crystalize” plays out the bargaining stage of heartbreak-induced grief over the kind of melodramatic chords that invoke thoughts of dry ice and wind machines, while “linknb” floats its soulfully ethereal melody on a jangling, alt-rock riff. In the final third, Kelela pivots towards unadulterated electronica—thumping drum ’n’ bass rhythms pulse through “don’t piss me off,” and PinkPantheress collaboration “the bridge” brings airy harmonies to a late-night garage mood—before scaling back on icy, vocal-led ballad “if we meet again.” An atmospheric sprawl of genre-splicing innovation that redraws the boundaries defining rock music, new avatar is Kelela’s most ambitious work yet.