Through four albums with the band Yeah Yeah Yeahs Karen O. established herself as a modern day punk queen. Then she was aggressive, in your face and screamed her vocals. Now on her own she is kinder gentler soul. The songs are from the 2006-07 era where she would just sit down with an acoustic guitar and sing. Wisely she recorded (in low-fi) these short (most are under or around a minute each) songs in her home studio. A lot of the material on Crush Songs reminds me of her Oscar nominated song “The Moon Song” from the film Her as it has that same kind of ethereal vibe going on. Romance is the name of the game here as most of the songs have something to do with romantic love. On several the emotion she is convey is palpable. None more so than on “Comes the Night” where you can almost swear that you can hear her heart breaking as she sings the words. Her debut solo album was a pleasant surprise for me as it showed there was some real depth in her. Not everyone could pull this off and demonstrates the talent Karen O. possesses to have courageously done it and done it well. There is even a quirky little cover of the Doors song “Indian Summer”.
Karen O. – Crush Songs
