The Golden Echo is the sophomore album by Kimbra. It was released on August 19th, 2014. The album was recorded from 2012-2014.
Writing and Development[]
For this album, Kimbra was extremely inspired by Greek mythology for the sound, and spent time at a small sheep farm in the center of Los Angeles, California. Kimbra visited the sheep farm the day after the 2013 annual Grammy awards. She had this to say about the creation of the album at the sheep farm:
"I'd been caught up with all the Grammy and Gotye stuff happening, and the touring, the constant affirmation— or praise, or criticism, or self-reflection— everywhere, you get wrapped up in it. Then here I was chilling with a bunch of sheep. And they don't give a crap who you are. You're not special to them. You spend time with them and there's this beautiful kind of harmony of how everything works in that environment. It was a really great space to create." "90s Music" and "Teen Heat" were two of the very first songs written and produced for the album.
Composition[]
As stated previously, Kimbra was extremely inspired by Greek mythology for the sound and vibe of the album. The album is considered to be very experimental and jazz-like. It's also considered to be under the art pop genre of music. The album goes from EDM-like synths, to slow ballads, to massive amounts of vocal layers and percussion, to even haunting strings. The album is very diverse with it's sound and no songs off the album are the exact same with it's vibe and sound. This time around, unlike Vows, Kimbra wanted to make an experimental album and not caring if it was considered pop or not. Kimbra also considered the album to be very panoramic, and is more fearless, rhythmically driven, and sonically adventurous than Vows. She also also said the intention and spirit of The Golden Echo is "familiar" to Vows.
Singles[]
Artwork[]
The album artwork and all other single artworks were photographed by Thom Kerr who has also directed the music video for "Miracle"". You can view the full photoshoot here.
Track list[]
| Standard edition | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Title | Length | ||||||||
| 1. | "Teen Heat" | 4:44 | ||||||||
| 2. | "90s Music" | 3:36 | ||||||||
| 3. | "Carolina" | 4:18 | ||||||||
| 4. | "Goldmine" | 4:40 | ||||||||
| 5. | "Miracle" | 4:49 | ||||||||
| 6. | "Rescue Him" | 5:34 | ||||||||
| 7. | "Madhouse" | 4:04 | ||||||||
| 8. | "Everlovin' Ya" (feat. Bilal) | 4:44 | ||||||||
| 9. | "As You Are" | 5:21 | ||||||||
| 10. | "Love in High Places" | 5:15 | ||||||||
| 11. | "Nobody But You" | 5:22 | ||||||||
| 12. | "Waltz Me To The Grave" | 7:30 | ||||||||
| Vinyl version | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Title | Length | ||||||||
| 13. | "Vanity Fair" (Hidden track) | 3:52 | ||||||||
| Deluxe version | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Title | Length | ||||||||
| 13. | "Slum Love" | 5:04 | ||||||||
| 14. | "Sugar Lies" | 4:10 | ||||||||
| 15. | "The Magic Hour" | 4:31 | ||||||||