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. The song’s lyrics might be the biggest red herring of all.
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