This past Friday, Columbian-American star Kali Uchis released her 3rd album, titled Red Moon in Venus. The excitement to see her musical growth since her previous release in 2020 was palpable, and now the wait is finally over.

The first track after the opening skit is the lead single “I Wish you Roses.” This song presents lush and beautiful production, much like the rose referenced in the title, with Uchis setting the mood for the record with her dreamy and enchanting vocals. The song itself encapsulates the feeling of letting go of someone you love, and ultimately wishing them well.

As she continues with the track, “Worth the Wait”, which features Omar Apollo, she begins to preach certain standards she has for love. This song speaks on the value of your body, saying that if you are going to open yourself up and be intimate with someone, it should be with someone who you truly love, and who has worked hard to earn your intimacy. 

At this point the theming of the album was clear. Throughout the tracklist, Uchis defines her expectations for love, not only for herself, but for society as a whole. 

The next track, “Love Between…”, echoes a similar message as the song prior, repeating the same hypnotizing lyric “love between two human beings can be so wonderful”, throughout the track. Like the previous songs, it features lush and dreamy instrumentation and vocal performances. This style of song seems to carry itself throughout the entirety of the record. 

The track that follows, titled “All Mine,” speaks of two people tuning out the rest of the world and purely focusing on each other. Excluding the two singles released before this record, this song is my personal favorite. 

The song, “Fantasy”, which features a performance from Kali’s boyfriend, Don Toliver, is about the idea of not settling for lesser, and learning to accept your standards for love, because despite what one may feel at times, true love still exists. It has a great feature from Don, and is an all-around enjoyable track.

The rest of the album follows suit with the tracks described above. Lush instrumentals, dreamy vocals, and hypnotizing lyrics about love and intimacy. Is it a little repetitive? Maybe so, but there is no denying the massive pool of talent that Uchis possess.

The song, “Hasta Cuando” is an anthem for dealing with people who have left your life and try their best to ruin it (I.e. a crazy ex or an old friend). She speaks on this toxicity with lyrics like “make everyone hate me if it makes you feel better.” 

Another highlight is the song “Moral Conscience”, which is just an undeniably great listen, and really showcases Kali’s talent as a vocalist. This track is a great demonstration of her improvement, as it features crazy falsetto notes and some beautiful pitch changes. 

The second single released for this album, “Moonlight”, is another personal favorite of mine. As the penultimate song of the record, it continues to draw on the main takeaway that Uchis seems to want to relay to listeners, which is to prioritize yourself when it comes to love, and to find someone who truly values you and makes you want to “take a ride in the moonlight.”

The closing track, “Happy Now,” is an upbeat tune that describes just what the title implies, to free your mind of its shackles and just “be happy now.”

Overall, Uchis seems to be trying to spread the message of the importance of your own feelings when it comes to love. This message is one that she does deliver, perhaps a bit too well. When I listened to this album, my expectations were made a reality. I was expecting a record filled with dreamy pop sounds, lush production, and great vocal performances. This is exactly what we got, down to a tee. 

There was nothing super adventurous about this album, and it seems like she stayed in her comfort zone while creating this project. Granted, the comfort zone of Kali Uchis is still an amazing place to be in, but it is still a shame she did not venture a little further into her potential. The repetitiveness of the love songs and similar production from track to track will make for an album that will fall out of the loop for casual listeners. 

With all that being said, this record is still amazing, and for fans of Uchis, it is exactly what they were craving. I would definitely recommend a listen.