Gotye
'Hearts A Mess'
(Lucky019)
Released:26.05.08
“Gotye is one guy, Wally De Backer,
who lives in Melbourne but originally hails from Belgium. He's a
talented singer/songwriter/producer. His voice is precise yet malleable,
running from smoothly soaring to roughly resigned, and his falsetto
pierces like a light in the shadowy landscape of his music.”
Pitchforkmedia
Gotye (pronounced Gaultier - like Jean Paul) is
a one-man indie success story, a Beck-style sample magpie and a
huge-hearted songwriter. Acting as his own manager, plugger and
record label while working in a library by day, Belgium born Gotye
has won a plethora of prestigious awards in his adopted home of
Australia. He has won both
the Australian equivalent of
the Mercury Music Award (the AMP) and a BRIT Award
(the ARIA for Best Male Artist), in 2007.
This track “Hearts A Mess” was also voted “Track
of the Year” by the listeners of Triple J Radio (Australia’s
equivalent to Radio One).
Gotye pieced together ‘Heart’s A Mess’ from a huge
collection of records bequeathed him by a neighbour. The main loop
being originally lifted from Harry “King of Calypso” Belafonte’s
1956 recording of “Banana Boat Song” (known by its signature
lyric “Day-O”) before then being replayed, adapted and recreated
for the track.
From the initial pluck of the harp string, the gentle
swell of violins, a lush beachcombing slide guitar, backed
by that most sumptuous Day-O swinging rhythm 'Hearts A Mess' opens
a kaleidoscope of feelings, with Gotye’s blue-eyed soul voice
having shades of Peter Gabriel.
Lull’s beautiful remix adds more glitch, crackle,
& ice-cool pop.
This is the first single to be lifted from the forthcoming
album ‘Like Drawing Blood’.
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