Karmin - Hello

Album Details

Artist: Karmin
EP:
Label: Epic
Year of Release: 2012
ME Rating:
Reviewed by: carlita on 2012-07-13

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Recommend

Just finished listening to kooky cover duo, consisting of couple Amy Heidemann and Nick Noonan, Karmin's first major label EP, Hello. I, like, apparently 69 million other people around the world, peeped their cover of Chris Brown's "Look At Me Now" on YouTube, eventually receiving mainstream radio and TV attention from Ryan Seacrest and Ellen DeGeneres. As soon as I heard the cover, I was immediately amused; loved their peculiar, stripped acoustic swagger and charisma, which I gratefully found translated over to their Covers Vol 1. Learning that they signed to a major label, however, I worried about this EP; should they have continued along the indie path they were on or would the pop machine concerned with trendiness and dollars, remove their trademark charm, package them like lunchmeat and make them generically sound like everyone else?

As soon as I turned on "Walking On The Moon", I received my answer immediately. The hip-hop pinup rapping and singing ability remained but this could have easily been Katy Perry's "Teenage Dream", Nicki Minaj's "Roman Reloaded" and Pink's "I'm Not Dead", featuring TLC's Left Eye. Well and good but already done before. Disappointed sigh. On an EP with only seven songs, I wanted to fast forward to the third song, "I Told You So", which is the highlight. "Too Many Fish" was decently cute but revisits a female empowerment theme already seen in Beyonce's "Single Ladies" which astonishingly had the power to get babies to do choreographed dancing. Wanting to see how these songs translated live again, I did watch their acoustic performances of a few of these songs for Perez Hilton TV which were pretty good and captured some of that early magic but unfortunately were not enough to save the EP from the pair I wanted to root for, for me, "I'm just sayin".

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on 2012-07-12 gutterseed Said:

Let's take it from the top. I wasn't expecting this album to be a hip hop album. She's got a great voice though. I think she's got a good flow. I think the beat's are great. Remember, you're not getting a review from a hip hop song and she's no Skylar Grey. The album could do without the acapella choruses. But either rap or go pop, it's really annoying.
I'm not too thrilled with the Katie-Perry-ish "uh oh"s" during her singing. She actually says "I don't wanna sing too hard" and I agree, honestly she has nothing to prove. I don't think she realy needs to be singing. This is on the song "I told you so"
The 3rd song on the EP is outstanding. She's a very strong rapper. She's like the female Busta Rhymes on this song. Once again, the song could do without the pop. She does have an outstandng abiility to spit out rhymes with the best of them. This song "I told you so", is by far my favorite on the album.
Would I buy this album? No. She definately show's promise when she does the hip hop, very fast, very rhymical and good follow through.
The album get's better as it goes on, I think she found her rhythm and gets a little more creative. So while the first part of the album sucks, the album wraps up well. Kinda like a Stephen King book, you always remember the ending.
The EP could have done without the song "comin up strong". Pick one, rap/hip hop or singing. The two don't match with her, she's too strong when she raps.
The last song Hello is an exception. They do a great job with that song. She's not Skylar Grey, or Beonce, she should stop trying.
As a side note, she does a cover of Dr.Dre/Skylar Greys' "I need a Doctor". I don't think it does the song much justice. She doesn't have the emotional tie that Dre/Eminem song had. She also has the male counterpart do the chorus, which is ridiculous, because his voice is horrid. It's a song that unless you believe in what you're talking about, you're just talking through the song. Granted Dre/Eminem/and Skylar have more talent in their little finge than this woman, and I'll give her credit for leaving out Dre's part.
Rating: 3/10