On Repeat: 'Foreign Car' By Kelsey Lu
Tristan Young @talltristan
There’s just no way you are as cool as Kelsey Lu. She has one of the most exciting and relevant resumes in music these days. A professional cellist, she’s been featured on albums by Blood Orange, Solange, and the absolute pinnacle of neo soul- Kelela. Not that she needs to rest on the notion of association with other artists, as her new album Blood is stellar. Picking just one track to feature between the likes of ‘Due West’, ‘Poor Fake’, or ‘Atlantic’ was torturously hard, but for EP29 of BORP we went with ‘Foreign Car’. This is easily one of the most sonically striking and unique songs of the year; it’s a clenched fist of intrigue and exhilaration. Tense and sharp strings form a cutting rhythm, you can almost feel it’s malice upon your soft tissue. The cello creates a garrote wire of a melody, with all the sleek danger that implies. Lu sounds easily composed, but with each line in her verses you can sense an increasing anxiousness. With the final line before the chorus, her delivery tightens into a firmly tense timber, bounding upwards with caged energy on the verge of chaotic release. The chorus delivers on that anticipation with aggressive slashes that are perfectly synchronized with her fiery repetitions. The overlap of lucid lyrical renditions and dazed chanting does wonders for the texture and progression. In theory, ‘Foreign Car’ is a fairly simple affair, but Lu’s mastery of instrumentation and timing makes for an audacious and demanding experience. It’s hard to tell if she’s being threatening or inviting, but when Lu gets going, she’s as undeniably convincing as any artist this year. Check out ‘Foreign Car’ on EP29 of the show on iTunes or Spotify, or on our Apple Music Playlist; and good lord listen to her album Blood.