Karmin - Hello Review

Viral video-stars-turned-major-label recording artists Karmin (real-life couple Amy Heidemann and Nick Noonan) have a great back-story. They also have one of the most aggressively obnoxious debut albums in recent memory. The Boston duo burst to prominence with peppy-precious electro covers of Lil Wayne and Chris Brown; for Hello they teamed with heavy-hitting songwriter-producers like Benny Blanco and Stargate. But the shtick is the same, as the pair retain a self-conscious "goofiness" that suggests the whole thing is a joke. Some of it is catchy – "Brokenhearted" has an irrefutable hook – but Heidemann’s daffiness and horrendous rapping spoil the broth every time. Karmin can make you hate pop music.
...full text You might have heard Karmin in a lot of different places. The majority of people have probably heard her cover popular artists on YouTube like Lil Wayne and Chris Brown, while others (including myself) heard them when they played on Saturday Night Live earlier this year with host Zooey Deshanel. Both of the songs that they played during that night’s show showed both sides to the duo’s music; one being incredibly catchy pop music like Jessie J, the second being a hip-hop state of mind reminiscent of Nicki Minaj. So of course, their debut album Hello embarks on a pop journey that weaves in and out of both genres that doesn’t last long whatsoever.
There are a couple of songs (literally) on Hello that could make it back to the radio, but unless the duo will come out with another album later this year (always a possibility), expect their first single to be circulating your brain all summer long....full text