Kimberly Cole Announces Upcoming Single with Eddie Amador

Friday, July 1, 2011

Kimberly Cole Announces Upcoming Single with Eddie Amador

Posted by Unknown

Dance artist Kimberly Cole is set to release a new single with house music producer Eddie Amador on August 2. The “Smack You” singer teased fans on Tuesday with cover art, date, and title for the upcoming release, called “Arrow Through My Heart.”

Kimberly Cole - Arrow Through My Heart (Single Cover Art)

“Arrow Through My Heart” is Cole’s first new material since the release of her debut album Bad Girls Club, the first album released by Oxygen Network’s imprint and soundtrack to its television show of the same name. The album’s lead single “Smack You” reached #3 on Billboard’s Hot Dance Club Play chart and inspired dozens of remixes by many top DJs, including Amador. Cole also recently released an Eddie Amador Megamix that mashes up several of the excellent tracks from Bad Girls Club into a ten minute lesson on how top-shelf dance pop is done (listen below).

The impending release is an intriguing collaboration that further proves that Cole not only knows her dance music but also has the balls to pursue a different path than might be expected of up-and-coming pop singers. Rather than play to the middle, Cole embraces the dance music core by teaming with Amador, revered as a practitioner of true house music in an underground genre that can be unforgiving in its demands of authenticity. (His breakout hit, "House Music," is a treatise on the genre that seems to inspire biblical reverence from The single will be jointly released through Citrusonic Stereophonic, a nearly brand new dance label, and Crystal Ship, which is run by Bad Girls Club producer Jeeve.

Photo by Kenny Sweeney

I’m still working on getting more information about the upcoming release and those involved, but I suspect “Arrow Through My Heart” may be a sort of joint launch pad for artists and labels alike, all of whom (with the exception of Amador) are still quite new. If so, I applaud them. Listening to Bad Girls Club months after its release and watching the excellent music video for “Smack You” has confirmed to me that my initial enthusiastic praise for the album was not simply inflated by novelty or excitement, the way so much music criticism is (a main reason I don’t believe in reviewing music immediately upon its initial release, and certainly not before). I can easily see Cole becoming a respected and well-known artist in the dance music scene if she continues down that route, and I suspect that would be far more fulfilling than battling for Top 40 ubiquity. It’s a pretty vapid place, and the few really sharp artists to make it there tend to have to water themselves down (Ke$ha) or throw the entire sum of their being and soul into the effort (Lady Gaga) to survive, and the smart ones quickly get out and do their own genius thing wherever it is that they really shine (Robyn, Justin Timberlake).

I hope this upcoming release and whatever is further planned along with it will help Cole’s music reach the audience that will appreciate it – which I think is by no means small – and that will recognize, as I do, that Kimberly Cole is a tremendous talent with enormous potential and who makes kickass music…and she’s just getting started!

Kimberly Cole - Eddie Amador Megamix