Pop rock thinly disguised for the goth-at-heart
Love is Dead
Island
Release date: 8 July 2008
By Joe DeRosa
One look at the album artwork for Love is Dead, the debut release from Kerli Koiv, who goes only by Kerli, and it’s clear who her target audience is. If you’re part of the Hot Topic-shopping, pseudo-goth culture, you’ll gobble up Love is Dead and you’ll adore the illustration of a doe-eyed doll-like girl holding her stitched-up plush bunny and starring out at you from the CD cover. Truth is, the 21-year-old native of the Soviet-occupied Estonia is somewhat doll-like herself. With her waist-length blonde hair, the stunning blonde is decked out in her aforementioned Hot Topic inspired garb all throughout her CD booklet. What is yet to be seen is, will her music and not just her clothing strike the right chord?
For the past several years, Kerli has worked extremely hard to get herself to this point. At 14, she began selling all her possessions to pay for voice and dance lessons. In 2004, Kerli came in second place in the Eurolaul Competition, a televised songwriting contest. On Love is Dead, she again flexes her songwriting muscles by cowriting all 12 of the tracks, many with David Maurice, who also produced most of the album. If one thing is evident from her writing, it’s that this fiery youngster is pissed off. Her Evanescence-meets-Alanis Morissette sound and biting lyrics surpass the hostility level of Alanis herself in songs like “I Want Nothing.” On the title track, she taunts an ex-lover and exclaims, “I know you think of me when you’re inside of her.” Much of the album has that same heart-on-your-sleeve kind of rawness to it. Especially on the slower tracks like “Bulletproof” and the beautifully atmospheric “Butterfly Cry” that is very reminiscent of Dot Allison. “Hurt Me” and “Walking on Air” gives us an idea of what Pink and Nelly Furtado might sound like if their music embodied a darker side.
Many of these tracks have enough attitude to appease their target audience, but it’s the arrangements and delicate orchestrations of the album that keep the tracks as interesting as they are. Both vocally and lyrically, Kerli consistently reminds me of Morissette, but her tangents into the darker and more atmospheric side are what set her apart. Even the album closer, “Fragile,” saves itself from drabness when, halfway through, the arrangement takes some twists and turns that add a punch to the somber feel. The only track on Dead that doesn’t quite fit is the R&B infused “Beautiful Day,” cowritten and produced by Dead Executives. (To my surprise, it turns out that two-thirds of Dead Executives are Benji and Joel Madden of Good Charlotte.)
Kerli worked over three years on her debut album and the hard work shows, but she’s straddling a very fine line. As she finds more success, her core audience will not want to see her lose her edge. But critics will quickly tire of the jilted lover shtick. (Seriously, can anyone think of Alanis without thinking of her scratching her nails down someone’s back? Problem is, she’s never been able to captivate her audience the way she did back then with Jagged Little Pill.) If love truly is dead for Kerli, my heart goes out to her, but it makes for some good music. And that should be appreciated whether or not black is the only color in your wardrobe.