Singles

Kelis - 4th Of July (Fireworks)

Antonio Rowe 13/07/2010

Rating: 5/5

American singer/songwriter Kelis Jones is possibly the most underrated yet arguably most influential popstar that's currently in the music industry, with her sassy feminist lyrics and wonky takes on mainstream pop and R'n'b evidently now being the blueprints and vague muses for her female contemporaries.

Yet for some reason unbeknownst to me, her fans (and most definitely her record label) this hasn't exactly translated into 'quids in' commercial success on either side of the Atlantic, with her only major commercial success being the innuendo laced 'Milkshake.' So with a career reincarnation in the form of a new NY/Chicago dance sound, an intergalactic image overhaul and a new contract with Will.I.Am's label
willi.i.am music group, will Kelis' dog finally have its day and will she become the successful mainstream pop diva she so rightly deserves to be?

Well if the second release '4th Of July' from Kelis' fifth album
Fleshtone is anything to go by, then the answer is a resounding yes. The track manages to somehow build and evolve on from the sublime piece of the club-pop U.K top 5 hit 'Acapella' with Kelis digging even deeper and really getting to grips with this new electronic/dance sound. Although the track is longer than its predecessor (5mins 28 secs) the arrangement seems less spacey and more jam-packed, with the song essentially being made up of; swirling synths, bubbling basslines and a stuttering Chicago house piano riff circa 1992 that contributes to the track's "you make me high" club banger breakdown.

To summarise, this track is about as credible and inventive-yet-catchy that pop/electronica is ever going to get. Dare I say it, summer anthem.

Release Date: Out Now