Karin Ann – not to be confused with the Dutch Keren Ann – is a singer and songwriter from Slovakia who has been making herself known for a few years. Specifically since 2020, the year in which she took advantage of the confinement to try to make a name for herself in the industry. Little by little she has achieved it to the point of being considered the Slovak “Billie Eilish.” It's one way of looking at it.
Such a description may have to do with the fact that Karin Ann senses the potential to generate a generational impact on the public. Her songs talk about mental health, gender inequality and toxic loves, but also about other topics that appeal to us today: 'i'm a loser' is the result of a period of pandemic depression. And 'looking at porn' she explains herself.
The music, however, is much closer to the aforementioned Keren Ann, or another artist with a similar last name, Aimee Mann, than to Eilish's pop-ASMR. If we have to place her within the proposal of an artist of her generation, we could talk about the folky Taylor Swift, or Andrew Bird. Although Karin Ann has experimented with electronic pop, on 'I Yearn for Agony', it is clear listening to her discography that her sensibility lies in North American pop-rock.
There is a lot of that in Karin Ann's official debut, 'through the telescope'. Published last May, no fan of 'folklore' and 'evermore' should miss it. Speaking of coincidences, her most listened to song is called 'False God' and it's today's Song Of The Day.
'False God' is a typically country-pop song that confirms that -sometimes- less is more. That “false God” that Karin Ann addresses in the lyrics seems like an old couple she blindly admired, ignoring the signs that warned of potential disappointment: “I could hear the sirens ringing in the distance, as if someone was shouting at me.” “Not to get close to you, but I didn't listen, I thought I heard the church bells, and now I only see that you were a false God.”
'False God' doesn't need sirens or bells to be a pristine song in the instrumental and melodic sense. Listening to her, it's not entirely surprising that Karin Ann ended up opening for Imagine Dragons. What is surprising is that there is a remix of the song by -be careful- Imogen Heap (!!). It's an interesting revision of a song that was already excellent in its original form.