When asked about the title of her third album on The Cruz Show, Kali Uchis kept the answer simple with, “I’m a Cancer, I’m very, like, run by the moon…I believe in all that shit, the moon and the stars.” As we all should if we want to lend some form of structure to an otherwise chaotic universe. With Red Moon in Venus, Uchis feels it all (as so many Cancers do), letting out any past pain with assurances that everything is forgiven and that she’s in a good place now.
This much is made clear from the outset, as the twenty-five second interlude leads into “I Wish You Roses.” The interlude, called “In My Garden,” opens with the Adele-grafted line, “Hello, can you hear me?” followed by, “I just wanted to tell you in case you forgot… I luh you.” With that Uchis leads us into the Tame Impala-esque musical intro to her lead single, one that advocates for having positive feelings toward one’s ex in a world that often champions otherwise (hear: any Taylor Swift, Miley Cyrus or Lana Del Rey song). Such positive vibes include the evolved outlook, “If you and my heart should someday drift apart/I’ll make surе to give you these blеssings because they’re all I’ve got.” However, Uchis does a tongue-in-cheek one-eighty in the final verse, taunting, “You’re gonna want me back/You’re gonna want me bad.”
Based on the sexual prowess she exudes on the next track, “Worth the Wait” featuring Omar Apollo, it’s not, um, hard to understand why her ex-boo might want her back. The ambient R&B groove that permeates the record persists on this Vicky Nguyen, J.LBS and Omar Apollo-produced number. Its sensual tone is reflected in lyrics like, “The mirror’s on my ceiling/So I can watch you top me/Deep in my knees I got weak/Baby, you know I’m a freak/Wanna get naughty, nasty” and “Baby, take off my clothes/‘Cause I got somethin’ to show ya/Show you the things that words cannot say/Show you it was worth the wait/I think you deserve a taste.” But Uchis isn’t all sexual seduction, keeping it super real in the second verse when she says, “Most people don’t know how to love, that’s why they’re empty/Nothing will ever be enough, that’s why they envy/Gotta be careful with my heart because I love deep [Cancer shit]/Quit tellin’ me you wanna put a baby in me/If your affection for me’s truly only skin-deep/I don’t wanna end up just another broken family.” This stemming from her own childhood traumas, complete with being kicked out of the house when she was in high school as punishment for coming home after curfew and skipping class.
“Worth the Wait” transitions seamlessly into “Love Between…” Notably featuring an interpolation of The Temprees’ 1972 single, “Love… Can Be So Wonderful,” Uchis was compelled to update the song with language that wasn’t gender-specific. Herself a bisexual, Uchis changes the line, “Love between a boy and girl can be so wonderful” to “Love between two human beings can be so wonderful.” It isn’t a drastic alteration, but it makes all the difference in the world—especially to those listening who are not heteronormative as fuck. As Uchis herself remarked, “I felt so inspired by the song, but wished it wasn’t gender specified and felt called to breathe fresh life into it. The verses, I wrote very naturally in a freestyle sort of way; just random thoughts when falling in love.” Although it’s theoretically upbeat in sentiment, the unspoken additional sentence to, “Love can be so wonderful…” is: “…until the bottom drops out.”
But maybe it won’t if the sex stays continuously fire. So it is that the “feelin’ on yo booty” genre that characterizes Red Moon in Venus intensifies with “All Mine.” Unapologetically possessive, presumably over her real-life boyfriend, Don Toliver, Uchis declares, “Go and tell the world (let ’em know)/Let all these hoes know/Who’s the only girl that can make you cry/I wonder if it hurts how hard they try/To take what’s mine, mine, mine, mine, mine.” Because, sure, millennials and Gen Zers can pretend to be as evolved as the day is long with claims of championing open relationships and gender fluidity, but, ultimately, a bia is going to try and keep her man to herself.
Speaking of Don Toliver, he’s featured on the following track, “Fantasy” (with Uchis taking a big risk on affronting Mariah by using that title). The most uptempo ditty on the album thus far, production from Jahaan Sweet and P2J complements Uchis describing her desire to perpetually live in the “fantasy” stage of a relationship—when everything is all romance and hot, hot sex. So it is that she sings, “Love all on me, spend it on me/Babe, if you don’t worship me/It just don’t work for me [more of a Taurus mood than a Cancer one]/Love all on me, everyone needs love…/I just want the fantasy/Love it when you worship me.” There goes the Venus aspect of her album title getting carried away again.
And, talking of the love goddess, “Come Te Quiero Yo” (“How I Love You” in English) is an effusive expression of what The Righteous Brothers would call “that loving feeling.” Parading her Latina roots, Uchis, in the spirit of Selena, J. Lo and Shakira before her, switches between both Spanish and English to express her protectiveness over her relationship. Regardless of outside opinions. With that in mind, Uchis commences the song with, “Dicen que no me conviene” (“They say you don’t suit me”) and later announces, “Mira, bebé, it doesn’t matter what they say/They don’t love you/Who cares what they love/Como te quiero yo/I want you constantly, eternally, unconditionally/‘Cause we got issues, everyone does/Si no hay drama, no hay amor.” That last line being a very Latino outlook on love, meant to be filled with passion in a way that Anglo-romance just isn’t (see: all that repressed shit in Jane Austen novels). And yet, Uchis does channel one group of white women very particularly here: The Shangri-Las. For they notoriously sang about boys who were seen as “no good” by their friends and parents, only to make him all the more desirable.
The Spanish flair carries into “Hasta Cuando,” which has a contrasting message to “Come Te Quiero Yo” in that Uchis is brushing off an obsessive ex here rather than embracing her current love. She asks of this deranged ex in question, “¿Qué haces diciéndole a la gente/Que tuvimos relación, cuando eso no pasó?” (“What are you doing telling people/That we had a relationship when that didn’t happen?”). If it sounds vaguely like Mariah’s “Obsessed” in lyrical content, you wouldn’t be wrong, with that theme escalating when she says, “It’s sad that you’re still obsessed/Keep lyin’ on me” and “Hasta cuándo tú vas a hablar de mí? (How long are you going to talk about me?)/Déjame ser feliz (Let me be happy)/Ah, ah, you’re obsessed/Ah, ah, you’re obsessed.” Uchis doesn’t seem too bothered by the haters though, shrugging, “Y despertando envidias como siempre, querida (“And arousing envy as always, my dear”).
The midtempo “Endlessly” finds Uchis cementing her neo-Sade status (and yes, she did confirm Sade’s influence on the record by saying, “Definitely. I love Sade. I think she’s a legend”). With production from Rodney “Darkchild” Jerkins and Marvin “Toneworld” Hemmings, Uchis establishes a jubilant insistence upon endless love (Diana Ross would approve) as she chants throughout the chorus, “Forever and ever, ever and ever, ever/You never can never, ever seem to get enough/Can never, ever seem to get enough/Forever.” Hopefully, this honeymoon phase (the most beloved “moon phase” of all) with Don Toliver will last. But if not, we’re sure to get a fantastic breakup album after this.
What follows is among the most memorable tracks off Red Moon in Venus, “Moral Conscience,” which finds Uchis warning, “One thing about Karma: that bitch will find you.” Uchis then leads into the foreboding chorus, “When you’re all alone, when you’re all alone/You’ll know you were wrong/You’re gonna feel it, you’re gonna feel it.” Not exactly in keeping with the “I Wish You Roses” atmosphere that Uchis introduced at the beginning of this sonic journey. So whoever did her wrong must have done something real bad to get this reaction.
As for why Uchis would subject herself to someone so shitty, well, 1) there aren’t a lot of quality people out there and 2) as she herself diagnoses, “I guess I was just lookin’ for the love no one’s showed me in my childhood.” The person she’s referring to clearly gave her more of the abusive same, however. Which is why Uchis curses, “Well, I hopе you feel it, I hope you find what you’re looking for/Surroundin’ yourself with praisе/But the truth sets in on those nights alone/And I can only scream all these feelings I have about it.” Like MARINA with 2019’s “Karma,” Uchis is endlessly (like the song) faithful in Karma’s penchant for collecting on a debt as she sings, “Hope you’re at least real with yourself/I hope you know when karma comes ’round/Knockin’ down on your door/She’s comin’ to collect/‘Cause karma won’t forget.”
On the second interlude of the album, “Not Too Late,” Uchis exudes more flexing bravado as she goads, “It’s not too late to admit you love me” and “You won’t find me twice and this, I promise.” She also brings back the Spanish to emit an especial confidence in the lines, “Conozco bien lo que es sentirse fuera de lugar (de lugar)/Cuando te vi, sentí por fin que encontré algo real (real)/Me encantan esos ojos cafecitos con azúcar (azúcar)/Tu mami dijo que yo me parezco a una puta/Dile que este cuerpo es arte, me parezco a una pintura (pintura)/Esta figura es una dulzura (dulzura)/Vea mi cintura y este culo natural (natural)/Me quieres comer el pussy, se nota.” This translating to: “I know well what it is to feel out of place (of place)/When I saw you, I finally felt like I found something real (real)/I love those brown eyes with sugar (sugar)/Your mommy said that I look like a whore/Tell her that this body is art, I look like a painting (painting)/This figure is a sweetness (sweetness)/See my waist and this natural ass (natural)/You want to eat my pussy, it shows.” Confidence is key, indeed.
But it’s a confidence that erodes on her most Sade-sounding cut of all: “Blue” (not to be confused with the MARINA song of the same name). Lamenting from the outset, “I’m not broken yet/But sometimes it sure feels like it,” Uchis proceeds to paint the picture of being slowly cast aside by the object of her desire. She accuses, “When you treat me like a stranger/How do you get cold so fast?/‘Cause there ain’t much to make me ever walk away, yeah/Guess I love you way too hard/But you’re breaking my heart with your body language.”
Despite her lover’s callousness toward her, she still can’t help but ask, “What’s the point of all the pretty things in the world if I don’t have you?/Yeah, there’s no point of much anything in the world if I don’t have you…/I guеss that’s my own fault for makin’ you my world, now all I feel is blue.” A cautionary tale about investing too much in any one person (particularly if their gender is male), to be sure. There’s even a certain SZA on “Kill Bill” tinge (via “Hate to see you happy if I’m not the one driving” and “I got me a therapist to tell me there’s other men/I don’t want none, I just want you”) when Uchis adds, “I don’t wanna see you with nobody else, I just wanna love you” and “I know I could go and find someone new/But they would never be you.”
“Deserve Me” featuring Summer Walker feels like the “Part II” component of the “Blue” narrative as Uchis makes it clear from the get-go, “Finally stopped calling/Tryna forget your face and put these thoughts to rest/Can I move on?/Gotta get this off my chest/Wanna feel light as a feather, just wanna feel okay, is that okay?” Having been taken for granted, Uchis and Walker chime in together, “I like it better when you’re gone/I feel a little less alone/You know I never needed you/Didn’t deserve me, you don’t deserve me.” It’s a realization many women come to sooner or later, with Walker elaborately speaking on the ingratitude of her erstwhile flame by lambasting, “You don’t deserve the love I give you/Make me wanna take the pussy back/You don’t even know how to act/I don’t deserve the shit you put me through/Like you don’t know that you’re lucky/Make a cute nigga feel ugly.” One could easily imagine Charlotte York repeating this last phrase to Harry Goldenblatt when he didn’t propose in a timely fashion.
The second single, “Moonlight,” which Uchis recently promoted on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, returns to the “good vibes only” tone that “I Wish You Roses” established as Uchis expresses (while using a bevy of Lana Del Rey keywords, mind you), “I just wanna get high with my lover/Veo una muñeca cuando miro en el espejo” [“I see a doll when I look in the mirror”]/Kiss, kiss/Looking dolly, I think I may go out tonight/I just wanna ride, get high in the moonlight.” Having opened for Del Rey for 2018’s LA to the Moon Tour, perhaps Uchis was loosely influenced by her vocabulary (including the signature, “Kiss, kiss” from “National Anthem”). Whatever the case, this is the closest we may ever get to a Del Rey-Sade lovechild.
Ending on the optimistic note (complete with the sound of water washing against a shore for a “rebirth” effect) she also started with, “Happy Now” seems to be the result of having purged any negative energy or feelings that the red moon might have allowed to course through her in all its power to “send your emotions into a spin.” Just like Uchis, as her own veritable red moon, has done to listeners with this album. Singing, “Can we be happy now? I wanna be happy now,” she makes it sound so easy—like it’s a decision anyone can take and decide to simply be. She then concludes the song with the line, “Just wanna remember all the good things”—and listeners will surely remember nothing but that with regard to Red Moon in Venus.
