Moroni's Review of Gotye's "Making Mirrors"

My friend Tyler sent me a link yesterday to the video for Gotye's "Someone That I Used To Know", and he gave me the idea for doing a review of the album.

For me, it is a rare thing - and a pleasant one - to find an song that gets under your skin and no amount of scratching will get it out. You have it on replay on your music player, in your car, in your head when you wake up - over and over and over until you get sick of it. It is even better - and less common - to find an album like that.

Gotye's single "Someone That I Used to Know" is such a song. Sadly, the whole album - "Making Mirrors" - is not quite as invasive.

Last month, I was browsing Amazon, and the top download was by Australian artist Gotye (aka Walter de Backer). I got curious as to why this song would be the top song, so I gave it a listen. Then I went over to YouTube and watched the video, which was a modern art masterpiece. (My family knows of this video as the one with "the guy with the big mouth".)

I loved the song immediately. It is subtle - all of the instruments played softly, accented by a xylophone (which my ten year-old daughter says sounds like a cat). When his strong voice crashes in the chorus, I was hooked. The song is offset by the wonderful voice of Kiwi artist, Kimbra. (My wife Martha loves her voice, and makes sure that she says so EVERY TIME the song plays.) The song finishes out the emotive layering of both Gotye's and Kimbra's voices.

I played this song over and over and over for about three weeks. This song and I - we had an intense love affair. The song was ubiquitous. Everyone was posting it on Facebook afterwards. I guess it has already been a #1 hit in several countries. Other artists - like Walk Off the Earth and Ingrid Michaelson - have done covers of this song. But, as my wife Temple pointed out, none of them have the emotion of the original song by Gotye.

This song was so good that I downloaded the whole album, "Making Mirrors". Sadly, the whole album is not as good as the one song. It does have it's shining moments, but none of them grab you the way the first single does.

The first time Temple listened to Gotye, she immediately compared him to Sting. (Comparisons are inevitable.) I think that his music sounds more like Tears For Fears. There are some bland '80s-style anthems found on "In Your Light" and "Save Me".

The album has a few light, dreamy pieces on the title track of "Making Mirrors", "Smoke and Mirrors", "Giving Me a Chance", and "Bronte".

It also has an annoying Motown-inspired song called "I Feel Better". (I can't stand Motown.) But this is redeemed by the rocking "Easy Way Out", the catchy "Eyes Wide Open, and the robotic reggae in "State of the Art". (This last song has AutoTune, but we will forgive Gotye, because he has already proved that he has a great singing voice.)

So the album is pretty good. But "Someone That I Used to Know" is the jewel on this album. No other song seizes you like this one. Once you listen to this song, you will know that it has "Gotye"... ahem...