Kali Uchis
starts her English-language fifth album by weaving a protection spell with "Heaven Is a Home...." Written weeks after learning that she was carrying her first child, the drifting ballad, made with the returning
Dylan Wiggins
,
Jeff Hazin
, and
Nick Ferraro
-- one-quarter of the singer's cohesive production cohort here -- sets a scene of domestic bliss and shelter. Though expressed softly and like a postscript, "Stay away from my baby, stay away from my home/That's all I ask of the world, that's all I ask of you" could be the LP's
Public Enemy
-style tagline. In that context, "baby" could be interpreted as child or partner, and it's the latter who is addressed across most of this misty and lush set fusing neo-soul, doo wop, and dream pop.
Sincerely
is best experienced from front to back. After the first seven songs lightly splash and bob while
Uchis
sings of gratitude, devotion, and self-doubt, song eight, "Fall Apart," delivers a knockout blow of heavy psychedelic soul. It's a white-hot expression of gratitude for unconditional love, and the singer's performance, especially on the bridge, is stunning. Once the song neatly segues into the doo-wop theater of "All I Can Say," anything seems possible, and though there's greater variety in the twisting and knocking grooves and the lyrical themes, the flow is still easy and the writing remains captivating. In the affectionate throwback "Daggers!,"
is part of a love triangle with a woman "sweet as cherry pie" (word to
Sade
) and a buster "too dumb to know what he's got." "Sunshine & Rain...," a shuffling and sanguine ballad introduced with a greeting from
' late mother, is a persuasive testimonial for companionship in the face of a faltering human race.
dedicated the album to her mother -- who died of lung cancer after it was completed -- and released it the Friday before Mother's Day 2025. Appropriately enough,
sings the finale to her son, born the previous year, and we hear him laugh and say "mama" as the music fades out. That's quite an evolution from being kicked out of her parents' house as a teenager, as referenced on the first half's "Just Us." Calling this the singer's most personal work thus far would be accurate but an understatement somehow. It's on some other level. ~ Andy Kellman