Karen O may be, nay, IS one of the most interesting female artists of the 21st century. Since starting off with the scrappy punk band The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, she has emerged as a reckless fashion icon whose musical tastes have grown into bizarre corners eventually resulting in the band's best album in 2009 with "It's Blitz!" that saw them take on a more synthesized, dance-oriented pop sound that proclaimed her artistic ambitions. In the five years since, she has ventured out into solo material by providing music to such films as Where the Wild Things Are, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and an Oscar-nominated turn with Her and the simple, sentimental ballad "The Moon Song." In a career spanning 13 years, it is strange that it took this long for her to release a traditional solo album. However, in a career full of awe-inspiring music, her debut "Crush Songs" is an underwhelming spurt of emotion more than a coherent collection.
Karen O has made a career out of bombast and eccentric oddity. That is why it is immediately alarming to listen to the album as it begins its 15 tracks with a whispered count in. This is how several tracks will start, but it only the beginning of an indistinguishable collection that features her singing over an acoustic guitar played by Imaad Wasif exclusively. More than the brevity, the production is rather jarring and makes the whole affair feel like b-sides to a far better album. While her voice can be tender, her occasional reach into loud vocals is met by a distracting distortion that may reflect passion, but just comes across as unpolished rough drafts. While it could be an intentional move to make the content feel more endearing, its novelty diminishes with each track ending and starting in similar fashions.
The origins of the album as presented in the liner notes state that this is a soundtrack to a "love crusade" from when she was 27 in 2006. The material was recorded privately and no reason was shared for why after eight years that this would be the perfect moment. The only logical reasoning comes from that it sounds like bad impressions of "The Moon Song," which clocked in at less than three minutes with minimalist production. It feels like a cash grab of sorts, tempting people to buy an album full of similar-sounding tracks. This move feels very jarring considering that the album isn't particularly memorable and clocks in at 25 minutes not allowing any song to fully develop into anything interesting.
Claiming to have "crushed a lot," these songs play more like personal poetry with the themes of love and longing connecting the entire package. For an artist who has done impressive feats, the lyricism is disappointingly simple and uninspired, choosing to go for cliches about the moments in which love sparks and the desire overwhelms someone. These are all familiar emotions that continue to fill mainstream music, yet those are met with hooks and something to grasp onto. While these songs mean something to Karen O, there isn't much drive or authenticity to have it mean something to the audience. At most, it is a record made in defiance of traditionalist love songs while also being cliche. It is a fascinating failure.
"Crush Songs" is a personal collection of songs that should have remained private. It doesn't do the compelling singer any justice in terms of solo debuts that provide promise. For the most part, it just exists free of creativity and quality that made the eight year gap between recording and release not all that necessary. There's only hope that now that this is out of her system that she will return to creating thought provoking pop and showing the world where her real talents lie. This is an album likely only to appeal to hardcore fans or those who liked "The Moon Song" enough to hear a rough demo of songs that wish that they were that sweet yet simple.
Rating: 1.5 out of 5
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