Kali Uchis is on fire as ‘Sin Miedo’ sails past any notion of the “tricky second album”

Credit: Interscope/Virgin EMI

Verdict: Her most personal and aesthetic-driven record to date.

I’m sure that one day, cultural and music historians will be looking back on this time period as the one where artists became more than just their music and their image. They became “moods”, “vibes”, inspirations for Instagram posts and much more. Experiencing music today is often far more than just listening to a record, and if there’s one artist who has trailblazed this style, its Kali Uchis.

Conveying classic RnB glamour and pairing it with a luscious concoction of Y2K fashion mixed with Latin American flair, the Kali Uchis aesthetic is one I’ve been enamoured with for a while now. Her fans live and breathe it, and on her new release Sin Miedo, she sets that style ablaze, celebrating everything it has to offer.

“Where the album succeeds is in how it sells itself on aesthetic, slinking through gorgeous Latin instrumental tunes, powerful hip-hop themed cuts and much of her signature melancholic RnB…”

It feels like we’ve waited a lifetime for a new album from one of the defining artists of the 2010’s neo-Soul explosion. Uchis’s second studio LP is powered off of her personality, a record that shows just how much her artistry has evolved in the last few years and what a mastery she has gained over her heat-hazed, pink-tinged sound. Confidently placing its foundations in its Spanish lyrics and drawing from her Colombian-American heritage, it is without question her most personal project to date.

So bold is its delivery that it’s hard to believe she had doubts over its release; she voiced concerns about the language barrier on Twitter, though you could hardly imagine the prowess that she displays here having been dented by such thoughts. Where the album succeeds is in how it sells itself on aesthetic, slinking through gorgeous Latin instrumental tunes, powerful hip-hop themed cuts and much of her signature melancholic RnB, as though you’d taken a 34 minute holiday to some coastal city in the southern Caribbean.

“When you embrace how much she conveys her aesthetic through the album’s sound, what you have is unrivaled sensual escapism.”

And it’s that palette of sounds that gives it such an authenticity. Who cares if English-speaking listeners can’t sing along, she drenches every cut in glistening, tropical-sweet aura, with an endless range of low-key hooks and slow jam beats. When you embrace how much she conveys her aesthetic through the album’s sound, what you have is unrivaled sensual escapism.

The records warmer, quieter moments make for stellar background chillout tunes – just listen to the pitch-switch on ‘de nadie’, the longing Dancehall rhythm of queer-themed ‘la luz’, or the John Barry-esque strings on ‘que te pedí’. Better still, when she wants to go in harder, she smacks it out the park. ‘Aqui Yo Mando’ sees her team up with Rico Nastay for a powerful Trap-inspired hype song, whilst sure-to-be-a-summer-party-classic ‘te pongo mal’ pulls off the impossible to make Reggaeton not only enjoyable, but borderline addictive.

You feel as though every genre she explores on here carries something of a personal meaning for Uchis, and indeed in much of the promo for the album, she’s discussed how much of its sound comes from childhood nostalgia. The sheer wealth of inspirations and inferences gives it a spectrum-like quality that captures the heat and sweetness of Latin American’s sound. It’s her passion, however, for those sounds that makes this such a rewarding listen.

On the album cover for her previous album, Isolation, we saw Uchis scantily clad with an expression of loneliness, lying on drapes of fine blue velvet. In comparison, Sin Miedo’s cover has her flaunting wings and asserting immense, all-commanding power; it’s very much mirrored in its musical content too.

A torrent of glistening, exquisite synths and beats, that tour multiple genres under the guidance of her ever lusty voice; this is Kali showing off and celebrating everything that makes her what she is. It’s a record sonicly rich both with her personality and personal development for herself, set ablaze by the glamour and fire she brings.

The Kali Uchis asethetic now truly has an album that conveys everything that is so great about its tropical, Y2K-meets-Latin-America infusion. Everything about Sin Miedo‘s vibe and feel leaves you totally conveyed. Even with its short runtime, the sensual escapism it delivers is remarkable, exquisite and full embracing in every single moment. Less than coming close to the ‘difficult second album’ stereotypes, she sails right past any such notions.

Score: 8.5/10