“Werkk“
1.5/5 BARKS.*
I get it…I’ve been gone. You’ve missed me. I’ve been flaky at best when it comes to writing reviews and audience engagement.
So much so, that now, it’s all come to a head.
My head. I have a headache.
I’ve stumbled upon KARMAA and similarly to The Ring, I now only have seven days left to live.
The haunting experience that is “Tik Tok Bop” and “Werkk” has left me permanently incapable of listening to “underground” “indie” and “pop music.”. I’m now like those annoying goth kids in high school who bitch whenever the Top 100 is playing on the radio inside their counselor’s office. I’m disgruntled. I’m angry.
On top of gross pandering, I found the forced message of “positive vibes” to be adolescent at best. Nothing about it seemed genuine, just a slight adjustment of marketing. In other words, if Millennial and elder Z “lol everything sucks.” humor was back in, that’s how KARMAA would market themselves. The only difference is, that Millennials and elder Z’s were at least genuine in their experiences and humor. I have full confidence that KARMAA is not.
“What’s the big deal in that Brutus?” You ask. Well, in my experience, music doesn’t tell any lies. If you are putting out work that you genuinely WANT to be perceived as positive, people (like myself) will pick up on it. Even if it’s the worst put-together project we’ve ever experienced. People will still obtain the message. The same goes if you’re force-feeding Tik Tok therapists buzzwords down people’s throats. People will see through it.
While listening to “burn SLOW” the immediate hook did leave me in suspense. I was genuinely stoked to see where it would go. Then, the hook never stopped. It just kept going. Anticipation climaxed, and now I’m all sticky and angry. Nonstop hooks are exciting in really quick, sandwiched songs that are used either as an intro or an outro to a finished product. They are not exciting when featured in a seductive pop song. The song didn’t stop to breathe, it let you know what it was at the very beginning and never changed. The fuck?
This isn’t me opting out of being a positive ray of sunshine. This isn’t me being overly critical because I feel I have something to prove. This is genuine frustration and disappointment. My emotions circling KARMAA’s entire overly-marketed presence is a battle between disappointed, and fucking angry.
The lazy lyrics of nearly every song I’ve heard float down every storm drain runoff in every suburban town. There is nothing phenomenal about this work, and the redeeming qualities are even more scarce.
At the risk of sounding overly negative about the “Queen of Positive Vibes”, I’ll point out some things I did like:
The Production quality. Everyone she has worked with, along with the music she features on her own hastily strewn together works is done with a fabulous precision of professionalism. The times I didn’t like the production quality, I found I was just simply not enjoying the flow of lyrics to the music.
This is the part where I close, and tell you, “As an artist, this person can grow.”. I’ll always say that. I want nothing more, but for KARMAA to release something that makes me feel stupid for posting this review. All of my woes, and please aside, I feel KARMAA is an artist who has gotten ahead of herself. The focus was heavily poured into marketing and buying followers rather than her music and lyrical content. While I understand the tug of war self-marketing and self-production creates; I still find myself frustrated.
*We wise guys rate and review music on a scale of 1 to 5 BARKS.. 5 is so good, it’ll make you slap your mother with joy. 1 is not. Our mascot is a dog, which is why we bark our praises.
Heavy Brutus 