Columbian-American pop/R&B artist Kali Uchis reemerged Friday with a brand new EP, her first new music of 2020. The TO FEEL ALIVE EP arrives after 2019’s one-off single “Solita,” and her 2018 debut album Isolation before it. We named Isolation one of the best pop albums of the decade.
If Isolation was our introduction to Kali Uchis, fully in bloom and already acutely self-aware of her abilities as an artist, this TO FEEL ALIVE EP is more just for fun—and we could all use a little of that right now. She made all four tracks during self-isolation amid the coronavirus outbreak.
“I hope I can offer some solace to you with this EP I’ve put together in my room in quarantine, and I can’t wait to share my real album with you soon,” Uchis said in a press statement. “Please take care of your hearts, minds, bodies and souls. Love xx uchis.”
The press release also hinted that her sophomore release is on the way later this year. In the meantime, we can enjoy TO FEEL ALIVE, which, while short, is a stellar rendering of escapist pop for these trying times—as well as more of the emotional vulnerability we’ve come to expect from Uchis on songs like “In My Dreams” and “Tomorrow.” Each song on TO FEEL ALIVE clocks in around two-minutes-long, but the standout is undoubtedly the title track, in which Uchis chants, “I just want to feel something,” perhaps nodding at the quarantine social media trend of doing something “just to feel something.” “How can I give a damn / If I don’t give a fuck?” she asks, getting a head-start in the race for the best lyrics of 2020 so far. Elsewhere, she alerts a lover of her worth on “honey baby (SPOILED!),” takes flight on the transcendent crush song “angel” and gives into her “needs,” physical and otherwise, on “i want war (BUT I NEED PEACE).”
Listen to Kali Uchis’ “TO FEEL ALIVE” from her EP of the same name below. Stream the full EP at your DSP of choice right here.
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