Kid Sister – Ultraviolet : Album Reviews

In a debut that was three years in the making, Ultraviolet from Chicago’s Kid Sister, clocks in at around 35 minutes of what has been described as the perfect middle ground between ‘infectious electro pop’, ‘urban beats’ and ‘filthy club bangers’. In a release which is as full of experience as it is big names in the music industry today, Ultraviolet hits hard and fast from the very first track to the last. After the delay of the original debut album due to her reluctance to follow through on the final copy set for re-production, the evolution into the final product of Ultraviolet was a lengthy and difficult process. Stating that “there were a few things about the album that irked me… the album wasn’t cohesive”, Kid Sister (real name Melisa Young), went back into the studio with renowned producer and DJ A-Track, eventually delivering this release in early 2010.

Album opener Right Hand Hi assaults the listener with persistent pounding beats and synth in one of the catchiest songs on the album. Set to a marching dance-floor beat courtesy of the boys from Swedish House Mafia, this first single off the album demands those listening, to, you guessed it, put their right hand high. Spelling aside, this track holds as a benchmark for the rest of the album which most of it unfortunately, fails to reach.

Switch Board which features DJ Gant Man, strikes as nothing more than a frantically paced album filler. The track is generally uninspiring, with incredibly bland lyrics set on a beat and backing track that is even more so.  Pro Nails which boasts a cameo from hip hop juggernaut Kanye West, concerns the chorus subject matter of the painting of one’s toes and fingernails to match. It seems like an interesting track choice for Kanye, however, much like most music featuring the man himself, it just works.

Kid Sister - Not everyones cup of tea

Life On TV and Let Me Bang are other solid tracks on offer, which are the tracks in which she both raps and sings, instead of purely rapping which can get rather irritating due to her somewhat nasally vocals. These tracks however, pave the way for a couple of gems on the album, Step and Daydreaming. The more pop based track Step, has a catchy chorus provided by Estelle and proves a higher quality of track than the others on the album, that is, apart from personal favourite Daydreaming, which features Cee-Lo, half of the duo that is Gnarls Barkley as well as Kid Sister effectively balancing the singing and rapping to a fantastic result. This mesmerising pop based track with the help of Cee-Lo, helps lift the rest of the album which comes across as somewhat repetitive.

For an album which was three years in the making, the sound isn’t completely whole. Lyrics seem rushed, certain backing tracks sound borrowed and only a few stand out tracks. Apart from the incessant and repetitive name mentioning throughout the entire album, which seems to be a given in hip hop music today, Kid Sister has managed to produce a solid release. Production wise, it is really more of a dance album than a hip hop one, filled with synths, beats and hooks which place the release more comfortably into the dance genre.

Ultraviolet might not be everyone’s cup of tea , what with lyrical punch lines that are at times cringe worthy, and a central theme of partying featuring in every track. And I mean EVERY track. But it’s a decent listen if this is your kind of genre and hints at the possibility of a stronger dynamic for promising future Kid Sister releases.