OK, so I haven’t been here in awhile. I’m sorry. As I wrote over on eri-chan*eats awhile ago, at this point I’ve pretty much accepted that I’m never going to be one of those awesome bloggers who’s putting up new material constantly and getting tons of hits and comments and what-not. I just don’t have the self-discipline. So, I’m gonna stop making myself feel guilty over it and just let myself write when I feel like writing, and leave it alone when I don’t. Cool? Cool.
That being said, I’ve got a post planned with my favorites list from 2011 (yeah yeah its been 2012 for a month already, I know) but right now I have GOT to tell you about this 2011 release that I only just discovered yesterday thanks to a weirdly late First Listen feature on NPR: Gotye’s Making Mirrors.
Gotye (pronounced “go-tee-yay”, according to NPR) is a Belgian-Australian singer/songwriter with one of the clearest, cleanest singing voices I’ve heard on a man in quite some time, and apparently a hell of an ear for insanely catchy, vaguely retro pop music.
Making Mirrors is chock full of awesome melodies, creative arrangements, danceable rhythms, and clever lyrics, all tied together with Gotye’s gorgeous vocals. His work on this album has been appropriately compared to artists like Peter Gabriel and George Michael in the late 80s/early 90s, and I often hear bits of Sting and Seal as well. But despite the obvious fondness and respect with which he’s looking back to that era and that style, the music doesn’t live in the past. There’s a real modern sensibility about these tracks, with enough electronic flourishes, subtle samples, synthesized atmospherics, and technological trickery to anchor it squarely in the present day.
What’s really gotten me hooked on this album is the fact that I can’t remember the last time music made me feel so GOOD. Standout tracks “I Feel Better” and “In Your Light” are almost impossibly catchy with infectious rhythms that make the prospect of sitting still while listening to them a seriously difficult proposition. Other tracks, like the penultimate “Save Me” and the frankly-not-long-enough “Somebody That I Used to Know” (check out the video below) featuring a brilliant appearance by New Zealand songbird Kimbra dig their claws in with soaring vocal harmonies and arresting lyrics.
Basically I put this album on and I end up smiling pretty much through its duration. That’s a seriously rare thing in today’s music world, where it seems like themes of anger, melancholy, detachment, and debauchery are practically a prerequisite to get any sort of attention. And that isn’t to say every song on the album is sunshine-and-rainbows – that’s not the case at all – but Gotye approaches even the hard themes (see the aforementioned “Somebody That I Used to Know”, or “Smoke and Mirrors”) with a certain upbeat attitude that keeps things from ever feeling too heavy. It makes for a refreshing and genuinely enjoyable listen.
Its not a perfect album, unfortunately. There’s a bit of genre-hopping going on which may put some listeners off – as good as the funky soul-stomper “I Feel Better” is, its a pretty big left turn from the slinky groove of “Smoke and Mirrors” immediately beforehand, and the ambient blink-and-you’ll-miss-it opener “Making Mirrors” doesn’t quite mesh with the fast-driving Beck-ish “Easy Way Out”. Even weirder is the way the best song pair on the album is immediately followed by the worst. The fakey-futuristic pitch-shifted vocals and island beat of “State of the Art” might make for an intriguing song on its own, but when taken in context with the rest of the album, it just doesn’t fit. The hushed creepiness of “Don’t Worry, We’ll Be Watching You” is perhaps less of a stylistic leap, but comes way out of left field in terms of tone: its just too dark for this album. Both of these are throwaways as far as I’m concerned.
But 10 solid tracks out of 12 is still pretty impressive, and when those 10 tracks are AWESOME, its hard to be disappointed.
Now if you’ll pardon me, I’m gonna go replay the album again and try to dance in my chair without anyone noticing.
More on Gotye:
Official Website: www.gotye.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/gotye
YouTube: www.youtube.com/gotyemusic
Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/gotye
