When some of these songs soar in their choruses, like on "Wanted", the title track, and the synthy, bubble-gummy kiss-off "How That Taste", Kehlani’s full-throated vocals and live-band sound recall '90s R&B groups like Total. On the stunning "Wanted", she sings, "As a woman/ When you are broken/ You make a choice to stay down or go in," but the chorus, one of resounding triumph, begins with the declaration, "He makes me feel wanted/ Like no one has before." Kehlani weaves an emotional, stirring thread through her songs that mostly feels joyful, even when she’s lurking on Instagram ("Jealous") or being vexed by a new flame ("Yet").
You Should Be Here’s dynamism and generosity is something to be amazed by, especially considering Kehlani is all of 19 years old. The beating heart at the center of You Should Be Here forgives some of these dips into mawkishness. And, much like Ocean, when Kehlani veers toward the maudlin, somehow the sincerity of it all redeems itself.
Kehlani, along with right-hand-man producer Jahaan Sweet, shares Ocean’s auteuristic vision and plainspoken eloquence. If there’s a contemporary comparison to be made, it’s Frank Ocean. Kehlani has little in common with other former-child-stars-turned-singers Zendaya or Tinashe (Kehlani and her band made it to the finals on "America’s Got Talent"), and she has little in common with the music of cool, casually misogynistic R&B bros, and in spite of a connection to PARTYNEXTDOOR and hailing from Oakland, neither of those facts figure much into her music, at least on an obvious level. Kehlani spends most of You Should Be Here switching between telling various dudes to get their shit together and the rest on a mission to inspire humanity.
#You should be here how to
That slyness turns out to be his greatest asset: beneath that everyday grin he not only knows what sells, but he knows how to look like he's not selling any wares, which is the key to a successful country-pop artist.The song’s lyrics might be the biggest red herring of all. Such ruminations mean You Should Be Here moves along at a slightly slow gait - the one time the tempo really gets kicking is in "No Can Left Behind," a drinking song stowed away at the end - but that does give it a casual crossover vibe, one that never suggests Swindell is gunning for the middle of the road. Tellingly, he also embraces themes that bely a slight maturation, or at least heartbreak: he's no longer chillin' while asking a girl to dance for him, he's wishing the party wasn't over and grappling with memories that don't leave. He does, however, move his way toward minor keys and adopts hints of the looped R&B rhythms Sam Hunt popularized in 2015. Dialing back the party tunes that gave him number one hits, Swindell nevertheless doesn't entirely abandon his suburbanite anthems. As a commercially savvy songwriter, however, he knows he needs to expand his reach for a second album, which is what he does on 2016's You Should Be Here.
As a partial architect of bro-country, Cole Swindell can't be expected to jettison the swaggering sound once it starts to get a little long in the tooth.
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