Good Weather For Airstrikes

Gotye (apparently pronounced “gore-ti-yeah”?…) is Wally De Backer, a.k.a. one talented motherfucker. Seriously, dude’s stylistic versatility is off the charts, and for proof one needs to look no further than his debut album, Like Drawing Blood. No two songs on the album sound the same, and while I could go into all of the stylistic deviations found on the record, an examination of the vast differences across the LP’s three premier tracks does more than enough to sonically elucidate this point.

“Learnalilgivinanlovin” is the closest thing to a single here, garnering extensive praise and radio play from Australia’s leading alternative station, Triple J (who would later name “Heart’s A Mess” the 8th best track of ‘06), and drawing the LP enough attention to wrangle it a spot on the shortlist for the 2006 Australian Music Prize, the down under equivalent of the Britain’s vaunted Mercury Music Prize. The track opens with some signature Phil Spector drums before roaring to life in a burst of brass and technicolor, and De Backer’s soulful, falsetto’d vocals and motivational lyrics give the whole thing a super retro feel that’s bound to get your feet tapping. At the complete opposite end of the spectrum, “Heart’s A Mess” is the Like Drawing Blood’s best track, thanks to a brilliant chorus that stands out as the album’s finest moment. Stylistically, it couldn’t be more different from “Learn…”, forgoing the hooky bombast of the single for stirring nigh-balladry, all swirling string arrangements and sparse percussion sections. It’s not the single, but when De Backer was given a decent budget for an animated music video, he and animator Brendan Cook agreed that “Heart’s A Mess” was the track most worthy of the cinematic treatment. It appears as if they made the right choice too, as the final product is one of the most breathtaking and beautifully animated videos I’ve ever seen - don’t make the mistake of overlooking it below.

Video: “Heart’s A Mess” - Gotye
Director: Brendan Cook (interview with SRO regarding the video here)
Watch: [YouTube]
Download: [Quicktime]

Finally, bringing the focus back to the music, “A Distinctive Sound” stands out as the greatest stylistic departure on the album. Truly a distinctive sound among the more pop-minded tracks that surround it, “Sound” is an experimental samplefest that wouldn’t be out of place in the oeuvre of Gotye’s fellow countrymen the Avalanches, recalling and - dare I say - outshining their genre-defying hit, “Frontier Psychiatrist”. Sure, it’s a bit confusing in the company of the more conventional tracks that accompany it on the album, but come on - if there’s one thing Like Drawing Blood will teach you, it’s that expectations and preconceived notions have no place in the world of Gotye.

MP3s:
“Heart’s A Mess” - Gotye ((highly recommended))
“A Distinctive Sound” - Gotye ((highly recommended))
“Learnalilgivinanlovin” - Gotye

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 6th, 2007 at 4:54 pm and is filed under Artist Profile. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.