Primal Heart is solidly compelling pop. A middle ground between a noisier Lorde-style sound and stripped down FKA Twigs vocals, Kimbra has quietly released an incredibly strong album.
A consistently winning album, Primal Heart finds Kimbra hitting the sweet spot between imagination and accessibility -- if her nods to the mainstream get more ears pointed her way, so much the better.
The time and deliberation taken by Kimbra on ‘Primal Heart’ shows, as on album three she’s truly hit her stride. Throughout she offers up rich, swirling instrumentals and intricate musical landscapes, crunchy chord progressions and twinkling chromaticism complemented by her confident, warm vocals.
Perhaps it’s her wisely chosen collaborators or more life experience, but Kimbra’s exploratory ethos has never been so on point.
Though she’s often made albums that straddle sharp pop with very focused genre-pieces, she has written her most cohesive collection of songs to date with Primal Heart.
In an album that is perhaps Kimbra’s strongest work yet, Primal Heart sees the New Zealand musician fuse elements of the old and new, creating an art-pop LP determined to overcome past faults.
You can’t help but feel, though, that Primal Heart lacks blood. For every genre-busting banker such as Human (inventive, effects-laden soul) or Recovery (pugnacious swing-pop), there are so-so tracks that should have been palmed off on to someone else.
The New Zealand musician’s third album is a collision of hard electronics with a touch of R&B. Though it contains moments of great power, it sounds like a work that’s stuck between two places.
KIMBRA DISCOGRAPHY #3 (these are old reviews):
Kimbra returns to her old early 2010s indie pop sound in a certain way, and thankfully so, since "The Golden Echo" (still an ok album) wasn't that great at least for me. The singles surely are the best songs in this album, "Top Of The World", "Like They Do On The TV" and "Right Direction" being the tracks that I liked the most.
Electropop isn't prominent like the previous album, and relying again to her art ... read more
Kimbra's "Primal Heart" is one of the best pop albuns of the year, with no bad songs and managed to join his previous eras into a cohesive and consistent album. After a considerable time without making any musical appearance, Kimbra have became some kind of internet meme of "being death" for not releasing any album (along with the still mythical "Masochism" by Sky Ferreira). Fortunately, last year she has announced her long-awaited album (first it was going to be ... read more
The Good War - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Top of the World - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Everybody Knows - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Like They Do on the TV - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Recovery - ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Human - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Lightyears - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Black Sky - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Past Love - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Right Direction - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Version of Me - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Real Life - ... read more
Not the greatest in a whole, but definitely got some great singles.
Favorites - Top of the world , Human, Past Love and Version of me.
I feel very similarly about all of Kimbra's albums, they have some amazing highlights but always have the potential to be greater. It makes me feel kinda sad that she hasn't made an album that truly captures her own uniqueness without drowning in her influences, showcasing what she brings to the table compared to her peers. Perhaps Vows is that album for her, the one that is most uniquely her, but I'm just too nostalgic for Vows to critique it like that. There are reviews referring to her as a ... read more
1 | The Good War 3:38 | 84 |
2 | Top of the World 3:25 | 89 |
3 | Everybody Knows 3:44 | 91 |
4 | Like They Do On the TV 4:19 | 89 |
5 | Recovery 3:19 | 84 |
6 | Human 3:58 | 87 |
7 | Lightyears 3:31 | 87 |
8 | Black Sky 3:51 | 86 |
9 | Past Love 3:35 | 90 |
10 | Right Direction 4:45 | 88 |
11 | Version of Me 3:57 | 85 |
12 | Real Life 2:22 | 76 |
#13 | / | Albumism |