Caleb Awiti, the 23 year old crooner from Kenya is one of the many names popping up in the fast growing RnB and Afrosoul genre across East Africa. The artist from Mombasa first gained recognition for his music with the release of his debut album Ex Tapes in 2020 at only 18 years old, the album being an exploration into the themes of love and infatuation at such an early age. From that point on he has grown into a consistent voice in contemporary RnB and Afrosoul in Kenya with a string of releases that continue to explore themes of love, yearning and toxic relationships. 

The Mombasa-born, Vancouver based Afrosoul artist is back with a new release in his Love Letters series. The album, just like all his previous records, is released and distributed independently under his record label, Mombasa’s Very Own, a play on the famous October’s Very Own record label based in Canada.  After the two previous chapters that set the stage for him as an artist, Caleb Awiti’s Love Letters 3, which dropped on March 15th is the scenic destination of a journey that started years ago. As the final project in the Love Letters trilogy, the album marks the end of a deeply personal path. It is equal parts celebration, confession and revelations of the ups and downs that come with love as seen through his eyes. In an Instagram post, the Kenyan artist described the album as “the most personal album I’ve ever made”.

The singer-songwriter has the ability to seemingly effortlessly, create soul-stirring music through experimenting with tempo changes as well as quick tonal shifts, and it can be heard clearly on this album. He easily melds genres such as Trap-soul, R&B, Pop and Afro-pop while featuring several rapping talents, resulting in an offering teeming  with eclectic ideas that assault the listener in waves of serotonin inducing sounds. Love Letter 3, being the 5th full length release of his since 2020, is a crucial checkpoint of Caleb Awiti’s evolution as an artist and showcases the best of his craft in a very short but punchy twenty seven minutes. 

Both previous releases in the Love Letters series have been heavily influenced by personal themes and lyrics that paint a picture of the singer’s inner thoughts and feelings, exploring his emotions and experiences with love in a way that is vulnerable yet not lacking in complexity. It is no different on the 3rd. “baby, let me introduce myself”, the album opens in “friends”, an intro that serves as the artist’s reintroduction to the listener. It maintains the slow, minimalist and atmospheric approach to production that has become a calling card for Caleb Awiti’s style, paired up with a short verse by the artist to set off the rest of the album.

The next two tracks on the album kick things up a notch by introducing more up-tempo vibes to the slow and soulful feel of the whole production. “lullaby” is a wonderful blend of Afrobeat and Neo-soul which will leave you with the difficult choice of either grooving along to the production or taking some time to reflect on the subject matter of the lyrics. This, quickly followed by “MpenZi TuLiA” a pop inspired, 808s-heavy collaboration with Ajay of the Buruklyn Boyz duo. The uptempo beat provides an opportunity for both artists to stretch slightly out of their comfort zones while giving the listener a change of pace as the language quickly switches from English to Swahili.

As the album plays on, Caleb masterfully uses the element of surprise to keep things interesting and give more life and sauce to his songs as you’ll notice on “hit my line” and “DND, both collaboration tracks featuring Kenyan artists 4Mr Frank White and Razor Man respectively. The effect is most evident on “DND” where the vocal variation that happens when Razor Man takes over. The shift brings you out of the reverie kind of like that first  sip of Coca-Cola. IYKYK. While the album is by a Kenyan-born artist you would be mistaken to think that he was from Lagos. The use of Nigerian pidgin and popular phrases in songs such as “sweet thing” and the heavy use of that Afrobeat production quality that has become popularized by Nigerian artists add a distinctly Nigerian flair that is reminiscent of Alte artists such as Cruel Santino and Odunsi the Engine, who have successfully managed to blend aspects of Hip Hop, R&B and Soul music with Afrobeat. The  first half of this album highlights the artist’s versatility across genres.

The album enters its final act with the short but unbelievably good “I wish I met your therapist”. Caleb pours his heart out in this emotionally driven track, written about someone whom he says felt like his entire world and made him realize how simple love can become. The song is a delicate yet powerful reflection on words that haven’t been said, grieving a lost love, and moments with your lover that are etched in your mind forever. Backed by the atmospheric, slow-tempo production that he is known for, his vocals bring the deeply personal and relatable lyrics to life, reminding us that the outward simplicity of love is a facade because love is actually a complex state of being that is often hard to understand and even harder to explain. “ I still think about the lipstick that you used to kiss me with every night”. 

The album closes with “trip to nirvana” and “so far away” two tracks that carry the same themes as “i wish I met your therapist” but lacking the emotional weight of the latter. Between lyrics about toxicity, substance abuse and long distance relationships, the production crescendos to a slow and brooding diary entry. 

A contrast from the genre bending of the first half of the album, the second half feels more homogenous because it falls back on his tried and tested method of slowing things down and relying on his harrowed vocals as the main vehicle. Even though the standout track is in the second half the surrounding songs do not match its gravitas making the back half of the album feel a bit flat compared to the first.

Love Letters 3 is arguably Caleb’s best album yet. Even with 8 different producers working on the album it maintains a cohesive sound. It is an offering from one of the most exciting and promising artists in the Kenyan music scene. It is the kind of well-balanced album to easily get lost in on the way home after a long day at work. The kind where you lose yourself in the scenery, not trying to think deep thoughts but failing terribly at it.