Color Review: "Frontline" by Kelela

When emotion and logic truly merge in music, they create an ominous feeling of balance, while amplifying the opposite extremes of this merge. Similarly, Kelela blends logical preservation and the boundless emotion of a break-up on “Frontline”, the first dose most recent work Take Me Apart best represented through this Pure Indigo hue. The opening line, “There’s a place you hold, I left behind/I’m finished” describes the emotion as rich and substantial, but logic rooted in self-preservation is most important, especially in this situation.

Indigo is widely known as the hue of consciousness and intellect, but here violet and blue and evenly distributed to create a narrative grounded in the emotional extremes of both hues. Blue here, illustrates the emotional labor behind leaving a romantic situation expressed through partial delicacies in the production, and the opening vocals. On the other end, the emotion is balanced out by Violet’s clear understanding and assessment of the situation through lyrics, especially in the chorus.

Given how specific the message of this track is, it would be best heard either at night or during sunrise. The dainty entry and exit with everything else in between sets up the perfect night to journal or research if the message doesn’t resonate with you. However, the sunrise would complement the falling feeling Kelela wanted to achieve in the song. In terms of space, Frontline would sound great on the beach and a boat, depending on the crowd.