Crush Songs


Crush Songs is the debut solo studio album by South Korean and American musician Karen O, released on September 5, 2014, by Cult Records. Karen O, best known as the lead singer of the indie rock band Yeah Yeah Yeahs, began writing and recording personal songs in 2006. Although she released solo work for film soundtracks in the years that followed, this material remained dormant until the band's hiatus, when she developed the songs into a full album. Musically, Crush Songs is a lo-fi album featuring acoustic instrumentation and lyrics about her experiences with love and its uncertainty.
For promotion, "Rapt" was released as a single and Karen O embarked on a mini tour. Upon release, Crush Songs charted in six territories, debuting at number 44 on the US Billboard 200 and number 61 on the UK Albums Chart. The album received generally favorable reviews from music critics, who praised Karen O's emotive vocals, vulnerability and stylistic shift, but felt it sounded incomplete.

Background

Karen O rose to prominence in the 2000s as a member of Yeah Yeah Yeahs, becoming a key figure in the garage rock and post-punk revivals of the decade. During production of their second album, Show Your Bones, she began writing and recording personal songs as a side project in her New York apartment from 2006 to 2007. By the end of the decade, this material went untouched as Karen O continued to make music with the band and contribute to film soundtracks.
After Yeah Yeah Yeahs achieved their highest charting album in the United States with Mosquito, the band went on a hiatus afterwards, citing a creative block and lack of inspiration. During the break, Karen O unearthed her solo material and developed it into Crush Songs. The songs were preserved in the state they were recorded; Karen O produced the album herself, and Nick Launay and Bernie Grundman handled [Audio Audio mixing (recorded music)|mixing (recorded music)|mixing] and mastering respectively. She had previously collaborated with Launay for the third Yeah Yeah Yeahs extended play, Is Is.
The album's artwork was designed by Julian Gross, a member of Liars, and Yong Kok Kim, and depicts Karen O kissing someone at different ages. She also contributed original sketches, drawings and handwritten lyrics exclusively for the vinyl release.

Composition

Crush Songs is an independent lo-fi album largely characterized by acoustic guitars and little-to-no percussion. It primarily blends alternative and indie rock, though a journalist for KLCC has compared its music to Kimya Dawson and Magnetic Fields. Its minimal production resulted in what Will Hermes observes as an "intimate" and purposely "unpolished" sound. Each of the songs on Crush Songs are under three minutes and "generally about six, seven sentences" each, with "NYC Baby" being its shortest track at fifty-six seconds and "Beast" its longest at two minutes and fifty-seven seconds. It explores themes of romance and its uncertainty, reflected in Karen O's autographical lyrics. In a statement on her website, she said:Karen O was also influenced by the Doors and Michael Jackson, covering "Indian Summer" by the former and writing "King" as a homage to the latter. Lyrics from "Comes the Night" are engraved on the wedding bands of her and Barnaby Clay, her husband. She wrote and sang "Singalong", the album's closing track, with Dean Fertita and Jack Lawrence of the Raconteurs.

Release

To distribute Crush Songs, Karen O signed with Cult Records, an independent label founded by the Strokes frontman Julian Casablancas, The pair were mutual fans of each other in the 2000s rock scene, and she credited Casablancas for giving her the courage to release the project. The album was announced on June 25, 2014, and promoted with a series of listening parties and a mini tour that ran from August to October 2014; she also created Instagram and Twitter accounts, realizing that "I just have no concept, outside the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, of me as an entity."
"Rapt" was released as a single on July 29, 2014 and accompanied by a music video directed by Barnaby Clay, Karen O's husband. Crush Songs was released on September 5, 2014 in a limited vinyl edition with her handwritten notes and sketches. This was followed by CD and streaming releases that same week.
On February 10, 2015, Karen O released the live album Live From Crush Palace, which contains recordings from three shows she performed at Hollywood Forever Cemetery. It features live renditions from Crush Songs, "Hideaway" from Where the Wild Things Are and "The Moon Song" from Her.

Reception

Crush Songs received generally favorable reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 65, based on 31 reviews. AllMusic's Heather Phares called the album a "slightly strange choice" for a debut but concluded that "this unassuming musical diary showcases many of the best things about the music she makes on her own." The New York Times's Melena Ryzik thought it was "very nearly a concept album".
Writers at Clash greatly praised Crush Songs's "simple, forlorn fretwork and O’s deliciously otherworldly vocals" but felt, despite "an enchanting first-time listen", that the songs were underwhelming and unrealized. Kyle Anderson of Entertainment Weekly similarly praised Karen O's musical talent but found it "a little jarring how small her first solo album sounds. The lo-fi bedroom lullabies on Crush Songs do have a pretty simplicity, but it's ultimately a sleepy listen with a lot of half-formed song sketches". Pitchfork's Stephen Deusner also believed the album was "too modest" and echoed that it sounded unfinished. Mark Beaumont of NME summarized the album: "At times throwaway, at others raw, intimate and charming, there’s plenty here you’ll want to get your mate to ask out for you."
Upon release, Crush Songs charted in six territories. It debuted at number 44 on the US Billboard 200, number ten on the Independent Albums chart, number eight on the Top Alternative Albums chart and number fourteen on the Top Rock Albums chart. In the United Kingdom, it debuted at number 61 on the UK Albums Chart and on the UK Independent Albums Chart at number eleven, with first-week sales of 1,336 copies.

Track listing

All tracks written by Karen O, except "Indian Summer", written by Jim Morrison and Robby Krieger, and "Singalong", written by Karen O, Jack Lawrence and Dean Fertita.

Personnel

Credits adapted from the liner notes of Crush Songs.
Musicians
Additional personnel