Kali Uchis brings us on a celebration of Latin roots music.

     Kali Uchis - ORQUÍDEAS

Album Review

Kali Uchis is a name you’ll hear from time to time that’ll certainly pop your interest, but if you dig deeper, you’ll find a near perfect discography, the sexiest R&B you can find, with great Latin influences to spice it up even more. Uchis became a known name in the industry after two features with Tyler, The Creator, one in each album. After that she went on to produce a few of the most eclectic series of TikTok bangers that went on to become summer bangers by themselves, like Telepatía and Moonlight. Last year Kali promised 2 albums, one in English, that came to be in march of 2023 as Red Moon In Venus, and a spanish-language album. And that’s the piece we come to find here called ORQUÍDEAS

    ORQUÍDEAS is incredibly diverse while maintaining its core values, it pushes the Latin genres to the front row now, making it the protagonist, instead of providing a supporting role like it did in Kali’s previous albums. That leads to a lot more reggaeton, lambada and merengue, but still maintaining Kali’s origins in R&B and bedroom pop, bringing soft and powerful vocals and well-sung verses. The instrumentals can vary a lot, at times, like in the opener Como Asi? where Kali brings a pretty classic beat for her likes, a few synthesizers with a number of different percussions, but all of that supporting the vocals above all else. On the other hand we have very aggressive instrumentation, like in Perdiste, that features a very loud trap beat that overpowers Kali’s vocals throughout the entire song and ends up drowning her and making for a pretty forgettable track.

    At times the record may feel like it’s stuck, mainly at first with tracks like Me Pongo Loca and Diosa, it feels like Kali is still making somewhat of an effort to stay in that cubicle that made her her, without much interesting of production or lyrics. That being said those moments are few and vanish at the end, not leaving a super sour taste in our mouths

    That’s not to say there aren’t good songs that are heavy on instrumentation, some of the best tracks on the album, that come at the very end, are the ones that push heavier the Latin genres, and those just land perfectly. To do a great reggaeton track it’s pretty important to have some looseness when delivering, that’s exactly what we are offered here, a pretty good series of Reggaeton tracks that bring out the best features. Starting off we have MUÑEKITA, a song showered with excitement from beginning to end, the beat change on El Alfa’s verse is marvelous, they play with the rhythm and make a dance track like no other. What follows up that is simply Labios Mordidos, featuring Karol G. The horniness on the track exhales through both the beat and the vocal deliveries, I love how the two just feel perfectly in sync on this track.

    Furthermore, we have a final 3 track run that continues that run of upbeat tracks, No Hay Ley Parte 2 features a great feature from Rauw Alejandro, Kali has shown to this point of the album to have a real sense for delivering lines in a smooth but certain way, without any hesitation. On the following Heladito Kali is featured with a kind of Egyptian/arabic rhythm for a change, it shows an even further ability of Uchis to compose taking so many lesser common and more Folkloric rhythms, filled with syncopation and strong pulses, even bouncing between different beats through a single song, like in Muñekita and the closer, Dame Beso // Muevete;

    This closer is simply my favourite thing Kali Uchis has ever put into the world. It’s so rich of essence and, given the whole album, it’s contextualized so perfectly. I kind of relate to it the same way I relate to Phoebe Bridgers’ ‘I Know The End’, closer for ‘Punisher’. In both cases, the song itself, while impressive, doesn’t tell the whole story, It truly feels like a celebration of the whole journey. Uchis plays with so many things she did through the album, like the beat changes, the influences, the energy. All feels like a celebration, even the way it ends with Kali saying goodbye to us.

    Kali surprises once again, with brand new elements, rhythms, great features, impressive deliveries and just overall a great vibe. You can see that there’s a celebration of latin roots music happening right in front of you and you can’t help but to enjoy it. That being said, it takes a while to truly start, having a mild start with some throwaway songs. The ending is a totally different beast though, giving us banger after banger, and keeping it fresh and new every time.

High 8/10