Kaleidoscope

If “Caught Out There” wasn’t one of the greatest debut singles of the ’90s — and it was, a ferocious contrast to her memorable if personality-concealing guest-star turn on (also ’99 Neptunes-produced) ODB classic “Got Your Money” — it at least had to be one of the most startling. (That I hate you so much right now hook is as directly, relatably pissed-in-love betrayed as it gets, though the way she growls/belts aaaagh in the midst of it proves it’s not all in the lyrics.) But Kelis can do way, way more than scream, and Kaleidoscope is built to prove it, from its slow-jam reveries to its aching anthems of desire. The Neptunes sounded fully-formed in unleashing their first full album-length slate of signature-sound beats — boasting an already hypernatural sense of surprisingly intricate percussive directness, lot-from-a-little synth riffage, and some of the giddiest computerworld melodic flourishes since peak Atari. And for the first of several times, Kelis’ and the Neptunes’ mutual-muse working relationship carried out a classic of leftfield R&B with better deep cuts (the oddly chirpy romantic ambivalence of “Game Show”; the ether frolic retrofuturist soul of “Suspended”; the crystalline palatial funk of “Roller Rink”) than records of this era are typically given credit for.