KALI Shuffles With the Unspoken in "I Just Wanna"

Something about the 80s aesthetic has inevitably gotten caught in the teeth of the social fabric of the past 10-15 years, and regardless of its sometimes expected textures, it nevertheless delivers a vibrant playground of flavors to explore every now and then. Talented newcomer KALI peruses these flavors with aplomb in her newest single “I Just Wanna.”

A soft fakeout of S U R V I V E -esque synth build gives way to the emotive pit-pat beat of a bedroom synthpop ballad that wouldn’t be unfamiliar in the Italians Do It Better catalogue. These elements give way once again to the wallowed soothe of KALI’s voice- sure and plaintive in its reminiscence. The chorus itself comes unexpectedly- just a split-second early following the pitch-shifted refrain of the song’s namesake- and careens into a full-on Prince-meets-Tom-Tom-Club rattle.

“I Just Wanna” plays with the sonics of its influence across the board, departing, returning, and turning over the sounds mentioned here, as well as others. Like the negative space flirting at the end of the chorus’s verbiage, KALI’s newest release leaves the listener wanting more.