Pulses

Recording information: Chalice Studios, Hollywood, CA; Conway Recording Studios, Los Angeles, CA; Cotton Row Recording, Memphis, TN; KMA Studios, New York, NY; Le Vose & the Ox, North Hollywood, CA; Marvin's Room Studios, Nashville, TN; Premier Studios, New York, NY; Record Plant, Hollywood, CA; Speakeasy Sound Recording Studios, Burbank, CA; Triangle Sound Studios, Encino, CA; Westlake Recording Studios, Los Angeles, CA.
Karmin's debut Pulses appeared in March of 2014, nearly four years after the duo's initial first flush of YouTube success and three years after it was announced they'd deliver their debut for Epic, and two years after Hello, their debut Epic EP emerged. This long delay suggests that it took a long time to translate their cutesy irony into an identifiable sound of their own. Karmin specialized in tongue-in-cheek covers of R&B hits, the kind of thing that makes for a quick sensation online, but their signature was Amy Heidemann's fleet ironic raps and her winking banter with partner Nick Noonan. On Pulses, the duo has been heavily retooled. Heidemann and Noonan are still credited as executive producers on Pulses but their trademark quirk has been streamlined in an attempt to shoehorn the duo into the confines of modern R&B and pop. It's not just a sonic change, it's one of image: gone is the knowing brunette pinup 'do of Heidemann's YouTube videos, replaced by a platinum blonde. Musically, Karmin occasionally bring the quirk, largely through Amy's irritating raps, but the best moments on Pulses are when they sound least like themselves: the giddy resurrection of Off the Wall on "I Want It All" and the cool new wave pulse of "Hate to Love You." ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine