Kimbra - The Golden Echo Album Review
I have been listening, not watching video’s or reading interviews, just listening, and enjoying very much Kimbra's new album The Golden Echo, it's a broad aural explosion, so bear with me as I rundown my impressions of each track.
Track 1. Teen Heart, opens with its steady beat blending nicely with a suave synth and vocal harmony, and then we hear the gorgeous Kimbra, and you instantly feel fortunate for the sound of her voice. Her sound is so tempting you feel the silky clarity of her vocals and all else becomes secondary. The peaceful verses are dramatically uplifted with a theatrical chorus, a popular formula for most of the album.
Track 2. 90’s Music, the surprising first track to get thrown into to publicity machine with a glittery video, I guess they were looking to show a different side of the album, whereas the rest of the album has a more RnB musical character and strength. 90’s Music has an industrious techno rhythm but it’s not a dancing tune, we are however lifted from its tribal chants with a gloriously uplifting and harmonious chorus.
Track 3. Carolina, is my personal favourite, it’s broad and bright, a multi-layered composition with soaring harmonies and a wonderful African “the lion sleep tonight” style backing vocal humming.
Track 4. Gold Mine, like 90’s music has an industrial techno beat, but with a more subtle vocal melody in its verses and the group sung chorus is salient.
Track 5. Miracle, is a disco inspired highlight, a very danceable funky bass and drum riff with cool keys and a hip dance jive, a joyous sound.
Track 6. Rescue Him, a tempered track with delicate synth beats, it builds nicely with abundant vocal styles.
Track 7. Mad House, very funky, full of great synth and a driving beat that keeps it energetically driving on its hip journey.
Track 8. Be Everlovin Ya, (feat Bilal), a unique harpsichord intro leads to a foreboding Prince sounding song with chilling strings and grinding bass synth fills, the vocal pairing with Bilal is a great blend.
Track 9. As You Are,cool piano and strings compliment this silky symphonic ballad, with lavishly layered vocal harmonies competing and complementing the string arrangements.
Track 10. Love in High Places, a another wonderful vocal work from Kimbra, an atmospheric journey with some very funky surges of bass and synth.
Track 11. Nobody but you, is an uplifting up-tempo tune with sweet harmonies and a great funky chorus, which constructs to an extra funky finish.
Track 12. Waltz me to the grave, a brilliant Kimbra tune with expansive soulful vocals, the rhythm challenges and changes until it builds and marches you military style to be released to its soft distant atmospheric end.
In summary The Golden Echo is more than worthy of your ears, and will be reverberating repeatedly on my devices.View Track Listing
About Kimbra
This is just the latest chapter in a series of Kimbra’s overall career success: the experimental pop performer’s 2011 debut, Vows, bowed at No. 14 on the Billboard Top 200 and was certified platinum in Australia and New Zealand. She received Best Female Artist two years in a row at the ARIA Music Awards and took home 5 New Zealand Tui Awards including Album of The Year in 2012. That same year, she exploded into the public consciousness with Somebody That I Used To Know, a duet with Gotye that earned her two Grammy Awards for 'Record of the Year' and 'Best Pop Duo/Group Performance', as well as reaching No. 1 on global charts (across 18 countries) and selling more than 13 million copies.
Her 2014 sophomore record, The Golden Echo, highlighted her eclectic style with a diverse set of collaborations from Thundercat, Omar-Rodriguez Lopez of The Mars Volta, Bilal, and John Legend. Likewise, her third LP, 2018’s Primal Heart, saw her touring with the likes of Beck, Odesza and David Byrne. Kimbra has performed on TV shows such as Saturday Night Live, Jimmy Kimmel Live, Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Last Call with Carson Daly, Late Show with David Letterman and Late Night with Seth Meyers, as well as performing at festivals such as Coachella, Austin City Limits and more.
Visit the muzic.net.nz Profile for Kimbra
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