Indie Music Album Reviews

Carla Stark - Karma

6/28/2018

Carla Stark

Karma
self-released; 2018

3.7 out of 5

By Jamie Funk

Carla Stark is a musician who has been around music from a young age. It also took some time entrenched in the business world that led her back in more artistic pursuits. While she was working in an Indian musical, Beyond Bollywood she met Essaï Altounian. Essaï Altounian apparently writes all the music on her album Karma.

The album contains twelve diverse songs all of which happen to be within three and four minutes long. I really liked the music throughout and Altounian certainly has a lot of talent as a composer. The arrangements are full and brimming with instrumentation.

The album gets going with”Monsters” which for the most part seems to be about horrible people and doing away with them. I have to admit I’m not sure if is referring to legal action or what in taking these type of people down. Stark sings “she will fight with love and faith” and then “Monsters, I will bring you down / Monsters, I will be your defeat.”

The song jumps topically with “Dreaming of You” which is a pretty straightforward love song. I loved the swelling strings and piano which really stuck out to me along with Bjork-esque drum production. “I Would If I Could” is a sunny, pop song while “Start Starting” is extremely upbeat and chipper.

“Once a Cheater” is the arguable highlight which is inspired by tango. The horns and music in general is fantastic and is also very danceable. The lyrics were a little confusing. It seemed to be about a person who cheated on her but can’t escape his own death.

As the album progresses there is a lot of variety. “Just Like A Tattoo” and “Arsenic” were the highlights to my ears.

There were a lot of different types of styles that were thrown at me on this album and I definitely felt some angles worked better than others. The topics felt piecemeal and separate and there didn't seem to be much of an overarching theme with the entire album that felt apparent to me.

Overall, this album has a lot to offer but at the end of the day it is a pop album that I think a lot of people would appreciate.

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