Stasis is not a word known to Kelly Lee Owens. Her fourth album, Dreamstate, continues the evolution in her discography. With a runway of several months between the first single and last week’s release, there was ample time to assemble some thoughts and modest expectations that went beyond the all-too-easy descriptor, ‘ethereal’. And from the singles and album artwork, I had a hunch about the progression it would take.

Here is my reasoning. It all begins back in 2017 with KLO’s self-titled debut album. The cover was a black and white portrait shot. It could be described, as things often are these days, as somewhat demure. Brooding bedroom pop aptly reflected this. Inner Song followed in 2020. Another black and white portrait, this time featuring KLO tossing her hair across her face. Indeed, the sophomore album was kinetic, yet elusive. Tracks like ‘On’ and ‘Jeanette’ were equally playable on dancefloors as in solitude. Then came LP.8, KLO’s most experimental album. It was cold and minimal and glitchy and a bit scary but it was all of these in all the best ways. KLO’s voice was still there, clear as ever, but more like some sexy evil witch than a conventional enchantress this time.

When ‘Love You Got’—Dreamstate’s first single—was released, the artwork signalled a radical change from LP.8. Here she was. Kelly. Lee. Owens. In colour. Outdoors. Staring boldly. Affirmed with the confidence that the Welsh-born, former auxiliary nurse had well and truly made it as a musician. Sonically, there was no doubt a tonal shift. We had left the bedroom and underworld. It was giving summer dancefloors. I shuddered at the thought of a sea of linen shirts and skirts shrieking the chorus while knocking back White Claws.

‘Higher’, the album’s second single, did little to shake this perception. And, now that we have Dreamstate in full, other cuts like ‘Sunshine’ and ‘Air’ partly confirm it. In spite of KLO’s obvious and ongoing successes as a DJ—whether at Charli XCX’s PARTYGIRL Ibiza Boiler Room or as far afield as our home soil here in Australia—I sense a lingering anxiety about being pigeon-holed as a singer. Tracks like ‘Trust and Desire’ and ‘Ballad (In the End)’ are the most contemplative and, maybe for that reason, sparse on the record. Thematically, their preoccupations are all too human: trust, hope, longing. These are some of my personal favourites from Dreamstate, for this is KLO as the singer. Perceptive, tender, elegant. But the urgency with which these elegiac moments are sidelined by the so-called ‘bangers’ is striking. Watch out, ‘Ballad’ — in comes the barn-smashing, four by four of ‘Sunshine’.

Of course, this is a false dichotomy. And certain tracks on the record reconcile these worlds better than others. ‘Rise’ pairs an oscillating synth line with vocals that, while rarely absent, never crowd out the mix. It lifts us to the album’s intended destination, that feeling of shared euphoria—the Dreamstate—and feels genuinely vibrant. ‘Time To’ chugs with KLO’s vocals at the helm—a development for the artist who observes her tendency to follow, accompany and ornament rather than lead with one of her key musical assets. Compare these gems with ‘Love You Got’, where KLO’s thin lyricism borders on the grating owing to the throughline of fairly uninspiring midtempo techno.

How can music profoundly resonate with both the clubgoers and the homebodies? The pundits over at Pitchfork slapped Jamie xx’s recent ‘In Waves’ with this charge and an air of scepticism. I don’t disagree with this assessment, but it would be remiss to not observe that this double standard is generally reserved for female artists like KLO who are brilliant enough to both sing and produce electronic music. Accordingly, Dreamstate is unlikely to universally please. In attempting to traverse some old and some new in KLO’s musical oeuvre, it necessarily suffers from a lack of cohesion. However, that is not to say that the album is everywhere and therefore nowhere. For we ought to recall that, where we can have it all—the euphoric and the brooding; the fast and the slow; the shared and the solitary; the hot and the cold—it is rarely all at once.

★★★/4

Joe Negrine

24 October 2024