"Brokenhearted" Karmin

Seemingly in an effort to up its reputation as a hip cultural tastemaker, Saturday Night Live has booked a number of musical guests this season so green that they might not even qualify as "up-and-coming" yet. Last month featured a now-infamous fiasco from the controversial Lana Del Rey, but Saturday night saw a more low-key performance by the quirky pop group Karmin, which debuted its new single "Brokenhearted." The duo—vocalist Amy Heidemann and pianist Nick Noonan met at Berklee College of Music and are now engaged—shot to viral fame last year with a peppy cover of Chris Brown's "Look At Me Now," which garnered attention for Heidemann's deft mix of rapid-fire rhymes and skilled singing, and earned them a major label deal. Unfortunately, the move seems to have robbed Karmin of much of its originality. "Brokenhearted" sounds like a dedicated disciple of the Dr. Luke school of dance-pop: the syncopated rhythm guitar is left over from "Domino," the sing-talk vocal style is all Ke$ha, and the chorus is an anthem waiting to happen (it doesn't). There's almost a moment of genuine fun when Heideman sort of starts rapping during the middle eight, but mostly, this particular brand of deliberately constructed Top 40 drivel is getting boring. B-