"Mr. Kouns is one of those artists who is refreshingly unpredictable, and “Michael Jackson: I Just Can't Start Loving You” is a perfect example of how dicey an endeavor trying to pin him down can be.
The majority of these sinister ditties are piano and keys based songs, embellished with, I dunno, maybe Juno synths and some sort of cheapo sonic embellishments and sparingly used chimes. This is one of the records that I reacted to almost immediately but chose to listen to numerous times. Though the music is mostly ballads, the lyrical content is fairly sick. For instance, the song “Desperation Is Coveted,” a great example of a cheerful chord progression features ironically motivated words of violence and insanity: “Torture and Violence/Is Our Inheritance/I felt them surge up inside of me;commingled with impotence and fear.”
The overall effect is similar to a mix of John Trubee and Boyd Rice, though the music resembles neither. On a personal note, I'd like to hear a duet between Lisa “Suckdog” Carver and Mr. Kouns. “Michael Jackson: I Just Can't Start Loving You” is one of those records which can both be categorized with ease when it comes to its off-kilter pop, but nearly impossible to pigeon-hold when paired with the sickness of the lyrics. As far as its genre-twisting content goes, it's the kind of record I love. Bizarre and catchy, Zack Kouns has managed to create on of those weird ones. Cheers! 9/10"
- P. Somniferum, Foxy Digitalis
