Music Review - Kimbra - The Golden Echo

Kimbra made big impressions in the last few years, with her first album Vows originally coming out in 2011, being spotted on Gotye's Somebody That I Used To Know in 2012, and then having a re-working of Vows come out in 2012, it seemed like she could do anything, so..she did a little of everything on her follow-up The Golden Echo.

The album is a mixture of genres that are unified by a few key ideas, the main one being that Kimbra can pretty much do anything she puts her mind to. While comfortably sitting in a modern Soul/R&B positon, Kimbra also takes on some more Rock-Pop numbers and even the weird genre-bending pop hit 90's Music, a song that's as much of a homage in it's lyrics as it is in style. Kimbra's musical style jumps all over the place, and it's a good thing. You can never peg her down as being just one kind of style, even when she excels at it. The Golden Echo is a collage of styles that do nothing but good things for the young, but very talented Kimbra.

Songs like 90's Music and Miracle sound poised to take the pop charts, while others like As You Are and Love In High Places are like the modern comeback of Soul, like Amy Winehouse or even Adele. While still others like Teen Heat and Madhouse sound like the Funk-induced R&B of the likes of Prince. It's a kaleidoscope of genres flavors that all combine to give you an authentic sense of what Kimbra is capable of, and that you at the same time don't know where she'll go next, whether it's the low-key trap-based Goldmine or the Soul of Waltz Me To The Grave. There are no sour notes on The Golden Echo, there are just different flavors rotating through.

The instrumentation is absolutely delightful. Besides Kimbra's magnificent voice that can hit the lows as well as the highs, you have multiple appearances from accomplished bassist Thundercat, Michael Jackson's drummer John Robinson, and Morris Hayes, a keyboardist for the NPG-era Prince. On 90's Music, Muse's Matt Bellamy plays guitar, Mark Foster from Foster the people makes an appearance, John Legend is on a track, the album really is just a collage of all the things Kimbra likes and wants to incorporate into her work, and it shows. Though instead of being a Hodge-podge mess of styles, The Golden Echo holds together as it's own standalone piece of work, a reflection of who Kimbra is and what she wants to bring to music, and I'm on-board for wherever she wants to take me. 

I will mention that while the vinyl lacks all the bonus songs of the deluxe version, it not only sounds fantastic, but the digital download they include also has the bonus tracks.

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Music Review - Pharrell Williams - G I R L

Pharrell had a tremendous 2013, being involved in a ton of high profile projects, including the latest Jay-Z, Beyonce, Frank Ocean's Channel Orange and Robin Thicke's Blurred Lines, to name a few. The one that related the most to me was his work with Daft Punk on Random Access Memories. So when I heard Columbia asked Pharrell to record an album for them after his work with Daft Punk I got pretty excited. I like his production, and I like a lot of his contributions, but I've never been a huge fan of his solo work. Not that it's not good, just that I've never gotten into it. G I R L changed that for me. I'm real into this album in a big way.

Pharrell seems to have taken a page from Daft Punk and explored older styles of his own music that he could bring back into style, and this album is just layered with Soul and Funk on top of R&B. It's fun, carefree and catchy. After the negative press that Blurred Lines caught for being incredibly disparaging to women, Pharrell reportedly wanted to work on music that represented what he actually thought of women. As such, G I R L is an album dedicated to Pharrell's views on women. Though it can be raunchy, it's never the way Blurred Lines was.

My favorite track on the album, and the one that caught my attention most was "Gust of Wind" a track that has Daft Punk producing and providing some guest vocals for Pharrell, returning the favor for his work on Random Access Memories. It's a Disco-Funk tinged R&B jam. It sounds like an outtake from the RAM sessions, it fits so perfectly into their recent sound. I absolutely love it to bits. I thought the album as a whole sounded familiar to RAM, and then when looking it up found that Mick Guzauski, the man who mixed RAM did the majority of the tracks on this album, and you can tell. Every song he did sounds big, open and warm, dipped in 70's-80's R&B essence. Another thing I thought was interesting is that iconic film composer Hans Zimmer was responsible for the strings arrangements on a handful of songs. Huh, I wouldn't have called that in a million years, but those strings do sound damn good. I guess Pharrell was one of the session drummers for Hans' Man of Steel score and that is probably how they met. Whatever the case, I want Hans Zimmer arranging more damn strings. Happy is of course another standout track. Originally penned for the Despicable Me 2 soundtrack, it fits right at home here. It's just pure fun.

Features on the album other than Daft Punk include Justin Timberlake and Timbaland on Brand New, Kelly Osbourne on groovy album opener Marilyn Monroe, Miley Cyrus in Come Get It Bae, JoJo on Lost Queen and Alicia Keys on featured duet Know Who You Are. Though I wasn't a huge fan of Timberlake's verse on Brand New, the production and added beatboxing from Timbaland made it feel like a crossover of male R&B world's. Lost Queen is a nearly 8 minute song about how Pharrell falls head over heels for a women, asking what planet this girl is from, because she must be a lost queen, meaning she is this amazing and powerful person and no one else is like her, so clearly she must be missing from the place she's actually from because there is no way she could be from the same world as he is. It's a charming epic, and an unexpected turn. One thing I noticed is that this album seems to have taken a lot of it's song-structure idea from Justin Timberlake's 20/20 experience, in that several songs are two part-ers, finishing off one song idea, then having an interlude and finally switching up to a second half. It's most evident on Lost Queen due to it's 8 minute length and very clear two half split, but it also happens on opener Marilyn Monroe. While I don't think it's necessary, it provides an interesting dynamic to the songs it happens on.

All in all, I really dig this album. I'm not huge into R&B, but I enjoy Justin Timberlake and some female R&B artists, but if more people took this kind of retro-look at the genre I'd probably jump right into it. I like big horn sections, big strings, and infectious beats and melodies on traditional instruments. As much as I love the sound of synths, it's nice when someone can create something that still sounds like them but in a style that isn't as popular anymore. This album is 10 tracks and lean at 45 minutes. No filler, this is the exact album that Pharrell wanted to make, and I can respect him for that. G I R L is one big 45 minute exercise in fun with 70's-80's R&B style.

G I R L on Spotify
Amazon MP3 and CD
on iTunes