The Singles Jukebox

Spare or sleepy?

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[6.29]Anthony Easton: Wading through a landscape of almost too sparse electronics, and having her voice emerge — almost spoken, soft, negotiating, and on the blank side of flat — Kim doesn’t sell the vocals as much as let them lie in ambush.
[8]

Will Adams: “Pearls” is worth revisiting on the basis of its ear-tickling sounds alone: utensils clink and scrape, synths wobble like a thunder sheet, and bass blurts add exclamation points to the ends of phrases. It’s Puer Kim’s calm amid the commotion, though, that bespeaks a confidence that elevates “Pearls” above its too-smooth R&B contemporaries.
[7]

Crystal Leww: Puer Kim tries to capitalize on interesting dance pop production flourishes — I like the stutters and hits in the production — but this drags. Puer Kim sings like an easy coffeehouse performer, and by the time we hit the bridge I’m ready to go to the registry for another cup to stay awake.
[4]

Iain Mew: A downcast wisp of a song put together with powerful synth wobbles; it doesn’t get blown away thanks to the resistance that gradually becomes clear in Puer Kim’s voice, rich and precise and quietly hinting at greater depths still.
[7]

Jessica Doyle: In interviews Puer Kim has said that she gives herself more license when writing in English, which is how we ended up getting the spare, pointed, thrilling “It’s hard to be a daughter of a woman loved by God” and, here, images of pearls outgrowing their shells. Admittedly by the chorus the metaphors are running into each other, but she’s good at matching message to mood: slinky contempt in “Manyo Maash,” workmanlike (almost to the point of boring) in “Bank,” dreamy regret here. I could float on this for a long time.
[7]

Jonathan Bogart: I like her low key Eurojazz phrasing, lingering mush-mouthedly over the beat instead of snapping to it like more current r&b. Unfortunately the English lyrics let her down, a bunch of nonsense that not even one of the busier productions I’ve heard in a while can save.
[6]

Alfred Soto: I’m smitten with the idea of Hope Sandoval over a modern dance pop productionszzzzzzzz
[5]