All or Nothing
Kali Uchis
Uchis loves instrumental backdrops scavenged from the sweet sounds of the ‘60s and '70s – reggae, R&B and jazz. For “All Or Nothing,” she borrows from a Ralfi Pagan track, “I Can Never Hurt You.” Pagan recorded for New York’s Fania Records, a label famous for salsa records and Latin soul. Uchis’s vocals channel the tender pain of Billie Holiday over Pagan’s pleasant vibraphones and sugary doo-wop. “Music nowadays is all about having no feelings and being too cool,” Uchis tells Billboard. “I wanted to reference classic shit from times when people let themselves be raw and vulnerable.”
The title of the song refers to commitment in relationships. “Once you let someone in, and you think they’re different than everyone else, you don’t want to give up on that,” she says. “It feels like you’ll never find it again, so you continue exhausting yourself, putting effort into someone who won’t meet you halfway and hoping eventually it will amount to something. Eventually, whether you want to believe it or not, you realize stagnant relationships with no growth are just as toxic as bad ones, and you are a reflection of what you put up with. This song is the personification of that realization.”
-Billboard 2014