Blogcritics The critical lens on today's culture & entertainment
Kim DiVine just released a new single, entitled “Broken Bird (Klvr Grl Remix),” and distributed it through AWAL. The song is from her recently dropped album, This Time Around, which debuted at number 8 on iTunes’ singer/songwriter charts. DiVine is the voice behind JELL-O’s national campaign and starred in the musical webisode series Kim & Seana, backed by Ford Motors Company, as well as having her songs in network and cable shows and indie features.
Originally from Holden, Massachusetts, DiVine now resides in Los Angeles. She dropped her Hummingbird EP in 2006, followed by a full-length album, Square One, in 2009. Then in 2012, she dropped Five, along with the video for “Perfect Kind of Love,” and later, “Winter.” DiVine recorded This Time Around just prior to the birth of her daughter, but a series of personal tragedies forestalled its release. Later, when she came back to the album, it felt unfinished. So she recorded “Where I Am You Are,” a song for her mother.
Electro-Pop, Hip-Hop, and House Flavors
“Broken Bird (Klvr Grl Remix)” opens with simmering shimmering synths that expand in amplitude to a glowing electro-pop melody with hip-hop and house flavors. Snapping percussive effects accompany the throbbing bassline and thumping kick drum, giving the song a heady undulating contagious rhythm. Burnished keyboards provide a harmonic foundation, allowing the melody to flow and shine. Filtered background vocals imbue the music with lustrous reverberating hues juxtaposed with DiVine’s sifting vocals, which are permeated with sylph-like colors and pungent washes of sonic pigmentation.
The combination of the iridescent melody and DiVine’s glossy prismatic voice is infectiously delicious, giving the tune a proximate dazzling energy that sends wistful sensations rippling through the air.
Remix Is Vibrant, Full of Dynamism
The lyrics present a passion both intense and focused. Compared to the original version, atmospheric and tenderly ethereal, Klvr Grl’s remix appends tiny hooks of sparkling dynamism, infusing the tune with a whole new vibrant feeling.
“How can I learn the right way to turn/When you have clipped my wings/Now you’re so cold/And I’m left to burn a single flame/I’m just a broken bird/Who longs to fly.”
“Broken Bird” is sumptuously enchanting. The melody fizzes with glinting sonic expression, while the rhythmic pulse adds broad-spectrum gravitational pull. And Kim’s textured spiraling vocals give the music a sonorous deliquescence quivering with colorful blushes. “Broken Bird (Klvr Grl Remix)” is innovative, brisk, and oozes opulence.
Find out more about Kim DiVine on her website, and on Facebook and Instagram.
