Koko
K.O.
Fashionpolice
While you couldn't really say that Koko has a unique premise about it, you could quite comfortably declare that it sounds interesting -- an '80s pop elixir laced with electro tanginess and served up by the tongue of Dear Euphoria. Mmmm, tasty. The thing is that despite the potential here -- not least down to the unique and untouchable voice of Elina Johansson -- this debut full-length falls a good bit short of the mark in terms of retaining any initial interest. It just seems like second-rate, done-before, Swedish electropop that, while well enough executed, gets pretty tired pretty quickly. There's a thin air or pretension about "K.O." -- a feeling that a contrived effort to 'think outside the box' has been the main driving force of any kind of variation here. It's a shame, but at the end of the day -- whether contrived or authentic -- "K.O." just doesn't pack the punch it needs to render it essential.
- John Norby
