Review: Karen O - Crush Songs
By Garrett Bower, Staff Writer
[Cult Records; 2014]
Rating: 6/10
Key Tracks: “Ooo,” “Rapt"
From Angel Olsen’s stripped, draining sorrow to Joyce Manor’s saccharine bummer pop, this year has been a wonderful one for sad music. Although the songs were written earlier in the past decade, Karen O’s Crush Songs seems to fit marvelously into the current wave of downer jams. Lo-fi and heartfelt, Crush Songs explores a wide array of emotions all surrounding mushy love junk. Through and through, the album is a short run through sweet little affairs, lasting as long as the loves that spurred them.
Opening track “Ooo” sets the pace for the oozing longing that pervades the whole of the album. “Don’t tell me that they’re all the same / Cause even the sound of his name / Carries me over their reach / Back to some golden beach / Where only he remains,” sighs O as acoustic guitar flutters and a light vocal harmony calls up those dreamy images of blinding love. It’s the kind of song you picture yourself listening to while grinning at the ceiling of your childhood bedroom, oblivious to the troubles that come with loving another, choosing only to think of smiles and letters.
“Rapt” then prods the more dangerous embers of passion with O contemplative, stuck between wanting to love one fully and debating the toll such an affair might take on her. Grimly, with a reservation that indicates the memories behind the fear, O waxes, “Love is soft / Love’s a fucking bitch,” before finally posing, “Do I really need another habit like you?” It’s a wonderful progression from “Ooo,” expanding on that initial crush.
From here, the album traverses all the triumphs and sorrows that accompany caring for another, all with O’s wonderful vocal work at the forefront. O does well to utilize both whispers and wails; she certainly tends to err on the quieter side. A majority of the time this tactic works well, as O has enough vocal prowess to make the quiet profound. However, the album would greatly benefit from hearing O really demonstrate her power at a few more keystone moments on Crush Songs.
While Crush Songs is a pleasant journey through soothing melancholy, some songs on the record feel a bit dated due to being written in the mid-2000s. Changes to arrangement or a less sparse instrumentation would have helped this record feel more like a full-fledged album and less of a little fling.
Crush Songs is a lovely little flirt, again showcasing the more intimate side O has expressed with her more recent work. While it might not sit on the turntable for weeks on end, it will undoubtedly be an album to come back to when the seasons shift and thoughts of another become present again.
