Kelela, a fixture in club-leaning R&B and a self-professed futurist, often seems to be peering toward what lies ahead. Yet this moment offers a compelling look backward as she dives into her own history. She released her new avatar album with strong reception this summer. To promote the project, she visited Los Angeles’s Spotify Music Studios, where she performed a cover of an Incubus track.
Covering another artist in a Spotify session isn’t unusual in itself—it’s part of the norm. Still, it’s striking to hear that Kelela feels a visceral connection to Brandon Boyd, the Y2K-era alt-rock frontman of Incubus. Backed by a string quartet and an acoustic guitarist, she delivered a hypnotic, impeccably grounded take on “Mexico,” a deep-cut from Incubus’s 2001 album Morning View. During the same visit to Spotify’s Live Room, she also debuted the new avatar single “idea 1.” Watch both performances below.
new avatar is out now on Warp.
