Kelsey Lu’s “Blood” Hints at Her Debut Album’s Depth and Richness

Some songs show up like that slightly-too-intoxicated friend at a party, clattering through the place, upending your things, maybe grazing someone with a fist. They don’t have to be loud or abrasive to do so. They can, like Kelsey Lu’s luscious new single, “Blood,” manage this while seemingly floating on a cloud of strings.

It might help that Kelsey’s timed her release of “Blood” for one of those pristine spring days when the sky pushes any light clouds to the edges of the horizon, stretching out into an expanse of unbroken blue. I live in London, where you mostly avoid eye contact. Today, I’ve shared smiles with random people, the unspoken ‘MATE LOOK AT THE SKY, LOOK AT MY JACKET-LESS EXISTENCE’ humming between us. And so when Lu sings “But it’s all love” three times, as the chorus of “Blood” swells over a variety of strings, it sounds as though she’s considering both personal relationships and a more sweeping connection to her surroundings. Within the song’s three-and-a-bit minutes, you’re taken on a journey that shoots directly upwards, lurching like one of those lifts that moves juuuust too fast.

What I’m trying to say is: "Blood" drops even more hints about how beautiful her debut album of the same name (due out on Friday 19 April) is going to be. If you’re thinking, ‘wait, a debut? Haven’t I been hearing Kelsey Lu’s name for years?’ then you’re right, in a way. She first started popping up under her artist name around 2015, mostly as a cellist. Within a year or so, she’d picked up credits on work from Kelela and Dev Hynes, plus an appearance on Solange’s pivotal 2015 album A Seat at the Table. But no, since then, she’d not rushed to do the album thing (for reasons I’ll expand on soon – I recently sat down with Lu to chat about her album and more). Instead, she's taken the time to produce work of the calibre you're hearing her: music that flows like melted-down diamonds, crystalline and luxurious. Hit play at the top of the page to see where it takes you.

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