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**Kelela - Take Me Apart: A Masterclass in Vulnerable Futurism**

In an era where R&B has been pulled in every conceivable direction—from trap-infused club bangers to bedroom pop whispers—Kelela Mizanekristos emerged in 2017 with "Take Me Apart," an album so precisely crafted and emotionally devastating that it immediately established her as one of the genre's most essential voices. This isn't just her best work; it's a blueprint for how contemporary R&B can honor its roots while pushing fearlessly into uncharted sonic territory.

The Ethiopian-American singer didn't arrive at this masterpiece overnight. Her journey began with a series of mixtapes that showcased her ability to navigate between ethereal vulnerability and club-ready intensity. 2013's "Cut 4 Me" introduced her distinctive approach to electronic R&B, while 2015's "Hallucinogen" EP refined her aesthetic alongside producers like Arca and Jam City. These releases established Kelela as an artist unafraid to let her vocals float over jagged, experimental production—a quality that would reach its zenith on "Take Me Apart."

What makes this album extraordinary is how it functions as both a sonic experiment and an emotional excavation. Working primarily with Arca, whose production here is both his most restrained and most effective, Kelela crafts a sound that feels simultaneously intimate and vast. The album's 14 tracks unfold like a fever dream of modern romance, where love exists in the spaces between Instagram notifications and late-night FaceTimes, where heartbreak reverberates through empty apartments and crowded dance floors alike.

The album's emotional arc is masterfully constructed, beginning with the hypnotic "Frontline," where Kelela's voice cascades over minimal percussion like water finding its way through cracks in concrete. But it's "LMK" that serves as the album's mission statement—a track that transforms the mundane anxiety of waiting for a text response into something approaching the sublime. Over Arca's glitchy, off-kilter production, Kelela turns modern dating's communication breakdown into high art, her vocals stretching and contracting like digital silk.

"Better" stands as perhaps the album's most immediately striking moment, built around a sample that feels both nostalgic and futuristic. Here, Kelela's voice becomes an instrument of pure longing, every ad-lib and vocal run serving the song's central thesis about deserving more than settling. Meanwhile, "Jupiter" offers the album's most club-ready moment without sacrificing any emotional complexity, its four-on-the-floor pulse providing the foundation for some of Kelela's most acrobatic vocal work.

The album's back half maintains this high standard with "Onanon," a track that finds beauty in uncertainty, and "Altadena," named for the California city where Kelela spent part of her childhood. The latter serves as a perfect encapsulation of the album's themes—geographic displacement, emotional dislocation, and the search for home in both literal and metaphorical senses.

Stylistically, "Take Me Apart" exists in its own category, drawing from UK garage, ambient techno, trap, and classic R&B while never feeling like a pastiche. Kelela's vocals are the constant thread, capable of conveying crushing vulnerability one moment and fierce independence the next. Her approach to melody is distinctly modern—less concerned with traditional song structures than with creating emotional landscapes that mirror the fragmented nature of contemporary experience.

The album's influence has been profound, inspiring a generation of artists to embrace similar combinations of experimental production and emotional directness. Its impact can be heard in everything from FKA twigs' "MAGDALENE" to Solange's "When I Get Home," albums that similarly use adventurous sonics to explore deeply personal themes.

Since "Take Me Apart," Kelela has been relatively quiet, releasing only a handful of singles and remixes. This scarcity has only enhanced the album's reputation as a singular achievement. In a streaming era that often rewards quantity over quality, "Take Me Apart" stands as a reminder of what's possible when an artist takes the time to fully realize their vision.

Six years later, "Take Me Apart" hasn't aged—it's simply revealed more layers. It remains a perfect document of what it means to love and lose in the digital age, wrapped in production that sounds like the future remembering the past. In short, it's essential listening.