Gotye’s highly-anticipated third release Making Mirrors (out now on Samples’n’Seconds/Fairfax/Universal Republic) is filled with percussion-driven songs in a wide range of compositional styles. Recorded in a barn down under in remote Australia, Belgian multi-instrumentalist Wouter “Wally” De Backer creates an intricate, expansive sound on what’s sure to be a breakout album (FYI: Gotye is pronounced “Gauthier,” from the French translation of Wouter). The lead-off title track is a quiet one-minute introduction, with layers of echoing vocals over waves of synths. The rocking rhythm for the next song “Easy Way Out” flows easily into the single “Somebody That I Used to Know.” De Backer employs a Brazilian guitar loop from the 1960s as a musical motif on that track while singing passionately about an ex-lover. New Zealand pop star Kimbra joins in to offer the female point of view in a stinging rebuttal. “I Feel Better” offers up blue-eyed soul, while “In Your Light” follows in the same vein with handclaps and synth horns. Poppy undertones on “Giving Me a Chance” make Gotye’s romantic yearnings seem less than wholehearted. The genre exploration continues on “State of the Art,” which flirts with the latest dub craze. There’s also a foray into world music with a sing-along in “Save Me” before the tribal drumbeat of final cut “Bronte.”
Look for Gotye on VH1 in February as the “You Oughta Know” artist of the month, and check him out on tour this spring!
-Jane Jansen Seymour
[video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UVNT4wvIGY 425×344]
