Kali Uchis: Red Moon in Venus review – elegant exposé of a troubled heart

In astrology, a red moon can often trigger an emotional tailspin. On the third album by Colombian American singer-songwriter Kali Uchis, she embraces these upheavals, delving into their effects on her love life. While her 2018 debut, Isolation, skipped between reggaetón, funk and bedroom pop, here Uchis couches her velveteen mood pieces in pillow-soft R&B, creating a suite of songs luxuriant enough to bathe in.

Things start suitably mushy. Elegant lead single I Wish You Roses – its swirling chorus as soft as candy floss – promises a love that’s deep enough to weather any storm, while on the woozy All Mine, Uchis longs to stay in her loved-up cocoon: “I hate your phone, throw it away,” she pleads. While it’s lovely to hear about her sexual gymnastics on the slinky Fantasy, things get more interesting when the passion wilts. The bilingual Hasta Cuando, punctuated by 80s drum fills, sees Uchis rap-singing delicious kiss-offs (“paint me as the villain if that makes you feel better”), while the head-knocking Deserve Me comes as close as she gets to musically confrontational.

If that represents the heat of the moment, then highlight Blue, in which Uchis’ versatile voice recalls the soft-scoop sadness of Sade, is its contemplative flip side. Over a vintage soul confection, Uchis travels through heartache, finishing somewhere near desolation: “What’s the point of all the pretty things in the world, if I don’t have you?” Things end, however, with resolution on the sun-dappled, 60s soul of Happy Now, in which Uchis urges herself to “remember all the good things”. Astrological guff never sounded so lush.