Kahimi Karie - Good Morning World

All Music Guide

The quintessential Kahimi Karie single, and the one that made her famous. British songsmith Momus wrote it for her and for a cosmetics company that commissioned the work. Airing in November of 1995, it sold 120,000 copies and went to number fine on the Japanese charts -- how many could understand its subversive lyrics is debatable, lyrics that not only reference obscure Fall songs but make offhand asides to the downside of nightclubbing and partying, the opposite of any corporate image ("suffer in a basement/in parties that go on and on"). In fact, the whole song was ironic, yet not: how seriously could one take the chorus, "good morning world /it's so nice to be a beautiful girl" or "put some makeup on your face/make the world a better place"? Yet Karie makes you believe. Add to this the arrangement, a loopy tribute, according to Momus, to the sound of mid-'60s Jacques Dutronc, which uses a sample from Soft Machine to propel the song, and it's an instant, catchy hit. The B-side repeat...s a track from Karie's Leur L'Existence EP from earlier that year. - Ted Mills, All Music Guide Read more Less