Blue Water Road

blue water road is a destination in my mind. I’m giving everyone access. It’s an emotional journey, a sexual journey, and a spiritual journey. To me, the album is like a glass house. It’s light, transparent, and the sun is shining right through it.

— Kehlani

In February 2021, during an interview with Rolling Stone, Kehlani shared that they recorded songs originally meant for the deluxe version of their previous studio album It Was Good Until It Wasn't (2020), but felt as though the songs would fit better on a separate album.[3] Kehlani formally revealed the album's official title through a trailer on September 14, and revealed that it would be released in the winter.[4] Hours later, they announced the album's lead single "Altar", which was released on September 15.[5] On December 14, Kehlani announced that the album will be delayed due to "a lot [of work] needed before finishing."[6]

On February 24, 2022, Kehlani released Blue Water Road's second single "Little Story".[7] In March, during a concert at Lollapalooza in Argentina, Kehlani announced that Blue Water Road would be released the next month.[8] On March 24, they revealed the album's cover and official release date of April 29.[9] On March 30, they released the album's third single "Up at Night", which features Canadian singer Justin Bieber.[10] On April 25, Kehlani revealed that they will be releasing a three-part docuseries entitled Blue Water Road Trip, where they took their production company, Honey Shot Productions, "on a road trip to experience the music in nature and reflect on some important aspects of my journey so far."[11]

Primarily a R&B and orchestral pop record,[12][13] Blue Water Road contains elements of folk, hip hop and progressive soul.[14] Lyrics revolve around themes of spirituality, sexuality, emotional clarity and love.[15][16] Helen Brown of The Independent writes that "their conversational vocals bend through the album like sunshine through the water."[17]

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	84/100[18]
Review scores
Source	Rating
Clash	8/10[14]
The Guardian	[19]
The Independent	[17]
The Line of Best Fit	9/10[20]
The New York Times	80/100[21]
NME	[22]

Upon release, Blue Water Road was met with critical acclaim. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from professional publications, the album received an average score of 84, based on eight reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".[18]

Writing for The New York Times, Isabelia Herrera praised the album's "delicate warmth", while highlighting a sense of "tenderness not felt since their 2017 studio album, SweetSexySavage."[21] She also noted that what "resonate[s] the deepest" in the album is Kehlani's "candid ruminations on queer desire and estrangement."[21] Shahzaib Hussain of Clash commended the broadness of the album's sonics, with its "shades of chamber pop, folky flourishes and molasses-smooth easy listening gems are a welcome addition to their repertoire; loyalists craving the dark, ambiguous strain of progressive soul Kehlani honed for close to a decade may be left wanting here, but this body of work delicately broadens their musical palette without compromising their rawness or sense of relatability. Kehlani can still be thorny and tempestuous but they’ve also never been more holistic and soulful than on Blue Water Road."[14]

Kate Lloyd of The Telegraph compared Blue Water Road to a "movie soundtrack. String interludes behave like camera pans between scenes; fuzzy production gives everything a dream-like quality."[23] Yolanda Machado of Entertainment Weekly called it Kehlani's "most confident album yet" and compared the album's unfoldment to a "breezy coastal drive — you can practically feel the beachy wind in your hair and hear the lulling tides lapping at the shore, waiting to pull you in. This is vibe music."[24]

Notes

• Each song title is stylized in all lowercase.
• "Wish I Never" contains a sample of "Children's Story" by Slick Rick.