Kelis - Amphibious (2001)

Following the massive success of her debut album, 'Kaleidoscope', in 1999, Kelis set about recording songs for her second record 'Wanderland'. The sessions were completed in 2001, but according to the singer, when they were presented to Virgin Records the executives didn't understand it, and so she subsequently left the label around the time of the album's European release, resulting in the record not being released at all in the United States. In order to produce something that could be released in the US, a plan was hatched to re-record tracks from 'Wanderland' with live instruments, and to get Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo, aka The Neptunes, to produce the replacement, to be called 'Amphibious'. It was intended to be a more acoustic-leaning version of 'Wanderland', but this plan never came to fruition, as Kelis' new record label Arista urged her to follow a different direction for her material, which resulted in the 'Tasty' album appearing in 2003. It remains unclear what tracks were due to make the cut on 'Amphibious', although rumour has it that the original version of 'Popular Thug (feat. Nas)' was slated to be the effort's lead single, although this has never been officially confirmed by Kelis' camp. Various recordings have surfaced, some as hidden tracks on re-issues of 'Wanderland', while other Neptunes' tracks have leaked over the years, and so we are able to construct a very rough track listing for the album, which does include some new versions of 'Wanderland' songs, but mostly consists of new recordings with The Neptunes.   

Track listing

01 Rain (Intro)
02 Oasis 
03 So Be It  
04 Star Wars 
05 Finest Dreams (Part 2) (feat. Richard X)  
06 Freak Me Slow 
07 Harlem Streets (feat. Raphael Saadiq)

08 Popular Thug (feat. Nas)
09 The Spot
10 This Way  
11 I Don't Care Anymore