Kali Uchis - After the storm (feat. Tyler the Creator & Bootsy Collins)

Kali Uchis is not going to debunk the sterotype of Colombian women as seductive mermaids with curvy bodies and sultry attitude, but she is offering a twist to it, so rather that the loud cheerfulness (think Shakira or Sofía Vergara), Karly Loaiza (Uchis' real name) lives for the sad stories, so even if the latin influences in her music and her style are very clear, she's also exploiting the tragic-diva persona that has been very successful for Lana del Rey.

The mind of Uchis is divided between her experience in Latin America and her desire to be global. In her music, there's an acknowledgement of what makes latin folk so unique, but in her canvas, she is painting a latin scene with the colors of the indie international movement. What her second album, Isolation, comes to show, is how broad are the interests of Kali as a music fan (her music library might have J Balvin living next to James Blake) and how she can appropriate a wide variety of influences into her own personal imprint.

Above all, the music of Kali Uchis is about the vibes. No matter if she is dealing with R&B, rap, funk, reggaton or indie pop, she is able to create a moody universe where the emotions awoken by the beach, the sun, or a lover, are just an escape for a life that never fully delivers what we expected. In After the Storm, the lyrics might be very basic, a straightforward "things suck, but if you don't give up, something better might (or might not) come", but it is her defeated delivery what renders it from cheap empowerment to something wider: her flattened voice repeats those self-motivation book truisms as if they weren't important at all and she didn't even believe in them; the lyrics in this song are like the quote we need to get for our perfect Instagram pic just because it will look empty without them.

It is the general aesthetic what is great about this song, the sexy beats produced by BadBadNotGood, the retro R&B style, the funk added by the brilliant guest appearance of Bootsy Collins, the to-the-point rap of Tyler, the Creator, it all adds to make this track a slow-burner, a vintage tropical postcard that keeps reminding you that it is the small pleasures in life the ones that are worth fighting for in spite of everything else.

All in all, Uchis is making all the right decisions, and is proving that her good taste is her most powerful weapon as an artist. She extracts the best of whatever she likes and by surrounding herself with the right people (other collaborators in her new album are Damon Albarn, Kevin Parker and Dave Sitek), she is offering a vanguardist view of a trip to the past. Every song in her album is different to the previous one, but as a whole, she is able to hold up a solid style and come forward as an authentic and very imaginative pop artist.