Bonnie Pink has always been a hit or miss with me. “Breezy” might be the best word to sum her up, but I mean this in both a good and bad way. She’s talented but no vocal powerhouse (if we’re going to be critical, I’d use a word like “flimsy”). Her songs are for the most part not thoughtless generic pop fare, but they certainly don’t distinguish themselves enough to make them memorable. Her songs don’t simmer out with the dated fizz that most pop songs acquire after about, oh, 10 or so looped plays: on the contrary, I think your enjoyment of Bonnie Pink grows with each repeated listen. It’s just that the majority of her songs are never hard-hitters.
Maybe the word I’m looking for here is “inoffensive.” Her music, simply put, is… benign.
So why throw out a lukewarm recommendation? Because Bonnie is not bad — there are far worse things I can throw down your auditory gullet — and her latest album, Dear Diary, actually has a few gems that managed to earn themselves a permanent place in my playlist. “Suki Killer” has a sparse, almost ’80s-inspired arrangement with a catchy chorus bound to get stuck in your head even if you don’t understand a lick of Japanese. (Just FYI: The title is a play on words, as “suki” means “like” and “kirai” means “hate.”) Try not tapping along.
