Gotye's album Like Drawing Blood was
recently named as iTunes Album of the Year for 2008.
An incredible achievement for an artist who recorded the album
in his bedroom by night whilst working as a librarian by day.
Whilst perhaps a surprising result to many, the Belgium born
Gotye had already won a plethora of prestigious awards
in his adopted home of Australia, including the Australian equivalent
of both the Mercury Music Prize (AMP) and Brit Awards (ARIA
for Best Male Artist) as well as the Australian Independent
Records album of the year.
For Like Drawing Blood, Gotye
cut loops of calypso, reggae bass, Tijuana brass, 50s film score
strings and combined them with emotional swathes of harmonized
vocal colour and bold melodic strokes. A detailed task,
the resultant brew is an evocative collage of sounds with their
own cultural flavours and heartfelt melodic brilliance.
Hearts A Mess is the album's orchestral centrepiece
and from the initial pluck of the harp string, the gentle swell
of violins, a lush beachcombing slide guitar, backed by
that most sumptuous swinging rhythm it opens a kaleidoscope
of feelings, with Gotye's blue-eyed soul
voice having shades of Peter Gabriel.
Originally released as a super limited seven inch single in
May 2008, this expanded 2009 release includes previously unavailable
and wonderful remixes from Supermayer and Joe
Hardy.
" Hearts A Mess is ....the most
majestic single you'll hear all year. A cinematic pop masterpiece ....
It sounds like nothing else out there right now, a timeless
pop classic unrestrained by genre or critical expectations,
and it's the kind of special, once-in-a-lifetime single that
rarely comes along in this increasingly homogenized indie scene."
10/10 Neon Gold/ Good Weather For Airstrikes
"The best cut'n'paste album since the
Avalanches....Like Drawing Blood is a meticulously crafted mishmash
that sounds thoroughly modern" Sunday Times Culture
Belgian-Australian singer-songwriter-sampler
coming on like Beck fronting The Avalanches. The Guardian
Makes Mark Ronsonʼs musical
tastes seem rather narrow-minded. Royksopp but with added soul.
This is an amazing orchestral offering Zoo
Considering he is essentially a one-man-band
( and a supreme drummer at that), you can only marvel at the
scale of the soundscapes Esquire
"The Wizard of Aussie Pop" Sunday
Times
