Friday 16 January 2015

Best Albums of 2014 // Kimbra: The Golden Echo

Kimbra sits in an unfortunate middle ground. She doesn’t qualify for the pop adoration of mainstream artists like Taylor Swift and Beyonce and she lacks the subversive cool of truly underground 'pop-smiths' like Ariel Pink and St Vincent. The music sits in between the vitality of radio-friendly “Shake it off” hits and the high brow, art pop of the internet underground, leaving it abandoned somewhere that you might expect to find Florence and the Machine, or Lana Del Rey: entry level alternative. As a result, it remains uncool in the eyes of just about everybody, and no critic has any serious interest in aligning themselves with it. 

Herein lies the problem, because unlike Kimbra’s debut, The Golden Echo is actually really very good. It’s too weird and yet not quirky enough. It’s too complex and not deep enough. It’s too arty and not artistic enough. What it is, however, is good, and undeniably so, such that it makes Kimbra’s uncomfortable place in the music world seem as comfortable as her satin sheathed posture on The Golden Echo's stunning album art.

She reclines like a god with total control over her creative process, dragging the likes of Thundercat, Dave Longstreth, Bilal, and Matt Bellamy (unthinkable choice) into the mix, crafting a collaborative album that remains distinctly solo. There’s more layers happening here than your average Animal Collective record and married with the hollywood pop production, it can seem almost desperately cluttered with ideas. But for the most part, they’re good ideas and they're pedalled to the listener one after the other with seriously impressive efficiency. 

Just listen to the lead single below. Its maybe-ironic radio pop schtick is thunderously overthrown by the hard-hitting chorus and leaves you with a sense that you’re listening to something a bit special; something far removed from it’s safe, entry level contemporaries; and something unfairly burdened by it’s uncool aesthetic. "90s Music" is the sound that movies envisage as the dystopian future of music; hyper-produced and robotic; echoing the songs of the past.

The Golden Echo is a loveable mess and in a musical climate that discourages maximalism, ambition, and virtuosity it needs to be celebrated, if not for simply daring to be fun.




If you're not entirely sold on 90s Music then give Madhouse a listen. It sounds like a cross between Kate Bush and Prince and if that isn't enough to tide you over then this may not be for you...


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