Music Review: Kelis "Milkshake"

http://www.amazon.com/Tasty-Kelis/dp/B0000AKOMI/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1363657299&sr=1-1&keywords=kelis+tasty
from JoeUser Forums

Milkshake
Year: 2003
Album: Tasty

From Kelis' website, her name is in a pink 70s style, funk graphic with a hot pink butterfly fluttering around. Built around the diner theme featured in the "Milkshake" video, readers are literally given a menu to choose which section they would like go to. Visit appetisers and viewers can read Kelis' biography. It's impressive and creative marketing at work.

Blending together R&B and techno, the Neptunes produced "Milkshake" is a delicious treat. Its only major flaw, however, is may be known as the "jiggling boobies" song. The single, however, is one of the few songs that is accepting of a women's sexuality and does not marginalize it. Kelis revels in it in a healthy and self-assured way.

Kelis proudly proclaims in the chorus (and the beginning) "my milkshake brings all the boys to the yard/and their like 'it's better than yours'/damn right, it's better than yours." In the first verse she sings, "I know you want it/the thing that makes me" suggests she is aware of her sexuality and knows the attention it brings. The second verse is aimed at the women. Other women are clamoring her to show them how she does it, but she tells them "it can't be bought." These other women are uneasy about their sexuality and need to know how to handle it. She also warns "just know, thieves get caught." In other words, if the other women are faking that they have this confidence, she will know. The third verse is summing up what constitutes a women in control of her sexuality and has good self-esteem: "you must maintain your charm/same time maintain your halo/just get the perfect blend,/plus what you have within." The overall message of the song is to be yourself and the rest the will follow. Unfortunately, for most people, this got lost amid the now well-known chorus.

The throbbing, pulsating beats the match Kelis' hyper delivery. Like the lyrics, the music is aggressive and candid. Kelis' expressive voice, although hoarse, is the best during the verses. She may not have much of a singing voice, but she knows how to use the strengths she does have.

Kelis has finally found a niche in R&B. Hopefully, she'll be able to build a fanbase in the United States and maintain her popularity.

For price, tracklisting and other album information please visit Amazon.com.

 

kelis
2,415 views 6 replies
Reply #1 from JoeUser Forums Top
Question from one of your readers. What are your music credentials? What do you play? Where were you trained? I have read several of your reviews, and I'd be very interested to hear about your own musical abilities and experiences from which I assume you draw your musical opinions. Most of the "music" reviews I read are actually "lyrics" reviews that discuss a particular artists "message". That's all fine and dandy unless it is published as a "music" review with Dick Clark caveats of "I give it an 8 because it has a good beat and is easy to dance to". Do you believe that your ability to receive aural data to your brain qualifies you to be a music reviewer?

I'm not trying to pick on you. Oh who am I kidding, sure I am, so punch the troll radio button if you wish and take away my precious JU points, but where does this stop? R&B stands for something. Rhythm and Blues. This song has no "blues" in it. Do you even know what the form of a 12 bar or 16 bar blues is? Does anyone that throws around this R&B phrase so casually now? This particular song is a sequenced drum beat with a finger cymbal on beat 4 every now and then. It's hardly a musical feast. In fact, I think I could drop my own sequencers on the floor and accidentally write something with more imagination.

Like the lyrics, the music is aggressive and candid


How? How is this music aggressive? How is it candid? If you're going to say that, fine, but explain it. Is it harmonic textures? Chord voicings? Do you like the unusual use of the flat 5 in the five chord that then doesn't resolve but just sort of lingers? (That doesn't really happen...this song is about as musically imaginitive as a 20 pound piece of granite rock on valium.) I really want to know. I've been playing this detritus all high school season for audiences across the northeastern United States. There isn't a musical redeeming thing about it. But I am willing to change my mind. Tell me what I am missing, o music critic? Please?

If I have offended you, sorry. Your apparent belief that you can steamroll the public with bullshit that you couldn't support with an army of Music Theory teachers offends me.
Reply #2 from JoeUser Forums Top
If you want to criticize writing, that's fine. You have a right to your own opinion. However, I will not take being put down and slammed own my website. Consider yourself blacklisted.
Galactic Civilizations III
Reply #3 from JoeUser Forums Top
Hey, Dusk, I think that your music reviews are very accurate, and I find myself agreeing with them.

Hey, Ockhams, I'm guessing 95% of the population who listen to "Milkshake" have no idea the technicality of the piece. And so, if the average person who listens to this song doesn't know what these mean, why are they going to care? Like the flat 5 in the five chord, or that R&B is in the form of 12 or 16 bars. Would you like to give proof that R&B can only be defined as having 12 or 16 bars. I'm positive I can also find you pieces that are 12 or 16 bars, that are NOT R&B. So, who defines this, and cannot each person define it for themselves?

Dusk, you do a great job on your reviews.

"The overall message of the song is to be yourself and the rest the will follow."

I'm not sure I fully agree with that... but isn't that the great thing about music? That we can interpret it how we like and that it almost means more when you do?

Also, I was just curious, what do you think her "milkshake" is? People around here anyway seem to have a different opinion about it, and that's fine, but I always thought she was talkin' 'bout her ass.

~Sarah
Reply #4 from JoeUser Forums Top
Thank you for sticking up for me, BigDreamer.

I thought her milkshake meant shaking her breasts, mainly because of the milk reference. However, Kelis has been vague about the definition on purpose.
Reply #5 from JoeUser Forums Top
I think you were right to blacklist him, he is also on the great Sir Peter Maxwell's blacklist so you made a wise decision in blacklisting the boy.

I think you should review Imagine by Sir Peter Maxwell for your next article, it doesn't have to be positive old chap. You can listen to the song by clicking this Link
Reply #6 from JoeUser Forums Top
Well Dusk, I have already told you I enjoy your reviews. I enoy reading them because of what they are, honest commentaries from a music fan. Not pompous, analyses of the form or some such. Because, well, I don't want to read that.

As far as this song, for some reason I dig it. I don't seek it out to listen to it, but I enjoy it enough that if I hear it on the radio I will stop and listen.