Review Summary: Gotye is one of those rare artists that keeps you craving more and more throughout the whole album.
Ok so this is my first ever review of an album ever and damn did I pick a stellar artist. Its amazing to think that one guy, Wouter De Back, could produce such a diverse album on his own. There really is no particular genre to classify this album in. It jumps all over the place, from reggae to jazz fusion. There's even at times I feel as though I feel like I'm listening to a musical, his voice has one of those distinctly clear sounds to it.
So considering this album jumps all over the place as far as styles and genres go, it's super hard to sum this up completely in a few sentences. I think my favorite aspect about this guy is that the song isn't consistent throughout as far as the instruments and styles he uses goes. "The Only Way" really highlights this point, you don't get that taste of variance until the last half but it definitely takes you for a different kind of ride. Most of the album consists of Wouter using his voice in a really mellow manner, trying to chill his listeners, but damn when you get to "learnalilgivinanlovin" he brings all of his energy out and adds a whole new layer of style to this album. Ironically, my favorite track on the whole album, "A Distinctive Sound", is one without any vocals from Wouter. I can't really describe "A Distinctive Sound", maybe it is why he titled it so. He used a lot of voice samples to add to this song, and the one sample to completely added to this song was at 2:46 (groovy as hell). My ONLY complaint with this whole album was "Night Drive", I felt like I was listening to a 90's love song. I actually don't even listen to the words of lyrics (it's just not my thing), I enjoy seeing how the sound of a voice can compliment a song. I gave "Night Drive" a second chance thinking that maybe the lyrics were extremely well thought out, but they seemed pretty bland and generic to a typical emotional song.
One word to describe this? Unique. Three words? Very, very unique. If you want a whole new music experience you need to listen to it from beginning to end. It's quite a treat.
