Kimbra’s U.S. debut, Vows, was intended to establish an identity for the Kiwi singer beyond “that’s the chick on that Gotye song.” The album didn’t perform spectacularly, which is a shame. Kimbra’s an extremely talented lady. She’s a bit quirky in the manner that femme artists from Lady Gaga to Lana Del Rey are, but her quirkiness doesn’t seem anywhere near as put on as the other artists I mentioned.
Kimbra’s also super-versatile from a stylistic standpoint. Much like Sia (who I’ve confused her with on an occasion or two,) she can go anywhere from traditional singer/songwriter to dance-pop to funk without batting an eyelash. It’s like she studied Kate Bush, Sarah McLachlan, Norah Jones and Erykah Badu, then smushed them all together.
Kimbra’s second U.S. release, The Golden Echo, will be released on August 19th, and features collaborations with a wide array of artists: Silverchair’s Daniel Johns appears as a co-writer, as does Mark Foster of Foster the People, as does John Legend. Muse’s Matt Bellamy and neo-soul weirdo Bilal also make appearances.
“Nobody But You” is the Legend collaboration, and certainly is a good sign that Echo will be a really good album. I’m looking forward, and you probably should be, too.
Also–what the hell happened to Gotye?
2 comments
Mike Browne says:
Jun 16, 2014
I remember when Kimbra was hyped a bit throughout the music blog community about 3 years ago. That’s how I found “Cameo Lover” and “Settle Down”, both of which I like a lot. But like the rest of the world apparently, I just never got around to following up that attraction. I’ve never heard any other songs by her until now, but it’s time to change that. That single is good stuff. I’ll be checking out the new album
MJ says:
Jun 17, 2014
She’s a bit quirkier than the average pop star; and her quirks are less affected and more natural, which is why I dig her more than, say, Katy Perry. I think she may have suffered a bit because of the association with one-hit wonder Gotye, who doesn’t deserve that status. But…such is life.