Album Review: Take Me Apart, by Kelela

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is a break-up’s aftermath, which is sped up, slowed down, zoomed in and out of, examined from the past, present and future, and filtered through loneliness, connection, confusion, self-reflection, sensuality, vulnerability and emotional growth. Quiet moments (“Enough,” “Jupiter,” “Bluff”) prove epic; casually fun jams (“LMK,” “Truth or Dare”) turn heart-pounding with twin feelings of freedom and anxiety. Throughout the album, moving on means moving inwards. “I think I know me now, I think I know,” echoes through the end of “Jupiter.”

, draws on this duality between vulnerability and autonomy. Naked on the cover art, staring straight through the listener, Kelela leaves no doubt that her vulnerability is a radical source of strength. “Don’t say you’re in love / until you learn to take me apart,” she commands on the title track.

RIYL: Solange, FKA Twigs, Jessy Lanza