Kelela Treadin- Water -raven Outtake That Was... =link= -

"Could you meet me in the water baby? / Could you meet me in the middle baby?" Themes of Fear and Flow:

But the true centerpiece is Kelela’s vocal. Recorded, some speculate, in a single take, her delivery is fragile but not weak. She treads the line between whisper and wail. The lyrics, sparse and devastating, capture the exhaustion of queer love in the modern era:

An outtake from the sessions for her 2023 masterpiece, Raven , “Treadin Water” is not a B-side in the pejorative sense. It is not a castaway. It is a revelation. For fans who discovered it via leaked forums or late-night YouTube deep dives, the track feels less like a leftover and more like a lucid dream that was almost forgotten upon waking.

An audience recording from a 2022 listening party in London captures 47 seconds of the track. Kelela’s voice, stripped of the usual cavernous reverb, floats over a skeletal piano loop and what sounds like water being disturbed in a metal basin. The lyrics, as best as can be transcribed: Kelela Treadin- Water -Raven Outtake That Was...

"Treadin' Water" is characterized by the same "nautical" and "submerged" soundscapes that define Raven . Lyrically, the song explores the exhausting middle ground of a relationship, with Kelela singing about being "in too deep" and the "terrifying" nature of trying to float together.

as a whole is a "masterful display of tension and release". "Treadin' Water" fits this description, leaning into the ambient, "benthic zone" soundscapes that define the middle section of the record. Some reviews of the album itself used the phrase "treading water" to describe certain sonic decisions that stayed within established R&B boundaries rather than breaking new ground, though the unreleased track remains a favorite for its "dewy dissociation". Kelela – Treadin' Water Lyrics - Genius

Why was it cut? The answer likely lies in the flow of Raven . The album is a masterclass in sequencing. It moves from the deceptive calm of "Washed Away" into the club-ready pulse of "Contact" and the heartbroken balladry of "Better." If "Treadin’ Water" was indeed a track about struggle and stasis—about the effort required just to keep one's head above the surface—it may have disrupted the album's narrative arc toward self-actualization. An album is a story, and sometimes the most beautiful sentences are cut because they slow down the plot. "Could you meet me in the water baby

When fans discuss "Treadin’ Water," they are rarely just asking for a catchy B-side. They are looking for a missing tile in this mosaic. The imagery of water is central to Raven ; it is the medium through which the singer navigates her emotions—sometimes drowning, sometimes floating, always moving. A track titled "Treadin’ Water" suggests a struggle to stay afloat, a stasis that sits in direct contrast to the forward momentum of the album. It implies a moment of exhaustion that perhaps felt too raw, or too redundant, to sit alongside the resolution found in the final tracklist.

Raven is already a sprawling 15-track project. Listeners have speculated that adding more tracks might have disrupted the carefully constructed flow from "summer" club energy to "winter" deep-sea introspection.

Recorded between 2018 and 2023, the song belongs to a period of intense creative exploration where Kelela focused on "building tracks" that existed between established sounds of R&B and experimental electronic music. Collaboration: The song originally featured a verse by rapper Junglepussy (who also contributed to the She treads the line between whisper and wail

To understand why an outtake like "Treadin’ Water" carries such weight, one must first understand the dense thematic tapestry of the album it was (allegedly) cut from.

is a fan-favorite unreleased track by Kelela that originated during the recording sessions for her second studio album, Raven (2023). Often referred to by fans as a "Raven Session" outtake, the song surfaced online and quickly gained traction within her community for its seamless alignment with the album's core themes of aquatic symbolism, emotional vulnerability, and atmospheric R&B. Origins and Context

: Consistent with the rest of the Raven era, the lyrics use water as a central metaphor for feeling overwhelmed in a relationship. Lines like "Look how far we swam, no stoppin' now" and "I can't navigate your waters baby" reflect a struggle to maintain emotional balance while "submerged" in a partner's complexity.

Raven was not merely a collection of songs; it was a cohesive statement. Released after a six-year hiatus following her debut Take Me Apart , the album found Kelela interrogating her place in a world that often feels hostile to her existence. Tracks like "Washed Away" and "Happy Ending" dealt with themes of erasure, endurance, and the quest for intimacy in the face of isolation. The production—handled by heavy hitters like Kaytranada, BbyMutha, and ambient duo FKA twigs—is characterized by deep, cavernous bass, liquid synthesizers, and a sense of underwater suspension.