Across just four songs, Kali Uchis shows us how isolation has kept her productive and immensely creative. This EP, born out of necessity during quarantine, demonstrates how personal and stripped of ornaments her talent truly is. Entirely composed, played, produced and mixed by the Colombian, TO FEEL ALIVE EP can get you in the perfect mood for a sunny afternoon*. If you live alone, those quarantine afternoons can feel extra personal. The consistent atmosphere brought by this EP makes it feel like a story told in just four parts. It doesn’t need to have more songs, and the ones that we get don’t need to be longer.

The magic of meeting someone for the first time and feeling everything new, while also trying to not let past bad experiences taint it, is represented in the vibe-y and short “honey baby (SPOILED)”, where the softness of Kali’s voice is met by a melodic synth with a gentle but consistent beat. “Hope this lasts a while and you never turn an enemy” is a sentiment that those who have found something we call love will share.

In “angel”, Kali rhymes ‘biblical’ and ‘spiritual’ while not talking about anything religious at all. It’s another type of highness, the one we get when we step into the unknown of something excitingly new.

The peak of the EP might be “i want war (BUT I NEED PEACE)”, where Kali explores more with her voice, and it becomes the most important piece of the song.

TO FEEL ALIVE EP closes with “’Cause I’m a rebel, baby, I don’t play like I should”; and this is how we describe this EP, as an act of rebellion, since the singer couldn’t go on with the plan of releasing the album she’s been working on.

Things will never be the same, as the artist states in the closing song, but we’ll try to keep it the closest to what we remember. And one way is to still expect her third album, now with more expectations than ever after listening to this taster.

*This review was written on an extra personal sunny quarantine afternoon.

TO FEEL ALIVE EP is available on Spotify and other platforms

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