Kimbra
The Golden Echo
WARNER
6/10
When observing Kimbra’s intense fashion sense, it’s easy to see her appreciation for elaborate and over-the-top art. This passion for intricate details and decadent fun is most evident in her latest contribution to the music world, The Golden Echo. Where Vows, her debut album, introduced Kimbra as an enchanting jazz-pop vocalist and “Somebody That I Used to Know,” her essential contribution to Gotye’s runaway single, shot her into the mainstream cycle, Echo aims to lift the songstress into the ranks of legendary pop stars. Constructed from influences of Prince and Michael Jackson, every vastly different song—shimmering synths and prim production included—comes together in an album of organized chaos. It’s difficult to peg Echo down into one genre. Kimbra’s sound is fluid in her songs, breaking boundaries where she can. In opening single “Teen Heat” she asks, “Can we lose ourselves in the moment?” Amongst the frenetic energy, catchy choruses, disco funk, and soulful sultriness, yes, Kimbra, we can.
