Album of the Day — August 3
Kimbra — Vows
Kimbra — Vows
03.August.2020
Kimbra
Vows
2011
You may recognize Kimbra’s name and voice from “Somebody That I Used to Know,” the 2012 Grammy- winning song by Gotye — making Kimbra only one of three singers from New Zealand to win a Grammy Award.
That’s right, Kimbra (Kimbra Lee Johnson) is from New Zealand. Not typically a country that’s known for being a hot-bed of music.
Her influences are as varied as you may expect — Prince, Minnie Riperton, Jeff Buckley, and Bjork — but Kimbra is so uniquely her own thing that if you never knew those influences, you wouldn’t hear them.
Kimbra borrowed from the Taylor Swift playbook, being ten years old and doing the National anthem thing at sporting events. But it being New Zealand and all, the sporting events were typically Rugby, and the anthem was New Zealand’s.
In 2007, she won a Juice TV award (think MTV but in New Zealand) for Best Breakthrough music video for her song “Simply on My Lips.” The song was successful enough that it brought her onto new Forum 5 label boss and manager Mark Richardson’s radar, who quickly signed her to a deal.
After struggling to complete the song, her first single “Settle Down” was finished with Australian composer François Tétaz. The track was produced by Tétaz and M-Phazes and released in June of 2010, well in advance of her debut album, Vows.
The song didn’t do much commercially, peaking at #37 on the New Zealand Singles Chart, but it tickled the bejesus out of Perez Hilton who said:
“If you like Nina Simone, Florence & The Machine, or Bjork, then we think you will enjoy Kimbra — her music reminds us of all those fierce ladies!”
Her next single, 2011’s “Cameo Lover,” would fare much better. The song would win the 2011 Vanda & Young Songwriting Competition — one of the runner-ups that year was Gotye’s “Somebody I Used to Know.” Gotye heard “Cameo Lover” and asked Kimbra to sing on what would become the Grammy Award-winning song.
Cameo Lover
This is nonstop baby
You’ve got me going crazy
You’re heavier than I knew
But I don’t want no other
You’re my cameo love
Only here for a moment or two
You stay inside that bubble
With all of your trouble
In your black hole
You turn from the skies
You dance with your demise
I’ll be here when you come home
We’ve all gotta break down
Let me come and break down, there with you
’Cause everyday’s like talking in your sleep
Love is like a silhouette in dreams
Open up your heart, open up your heart
Open up your heart and let me pull you out
Everyday’s like talking in your sleep
Love is like a silhouette in dreams
Open up your heart, open up your heart
Open up your heart and let me pull you out of here
I’ve got high hopes baby
But all you do is take me down to depths that I never knew
You’ve got two arms baby
They’re all tangled in ladies of the black skies posing blue
Let go of your mother
And turn to your brother
Not a long gone lover’s noose
Sometimes baby the hardest part of breaking
Is leaving pieces behind you
Oh we’ve all gotta get by
Let me come and hold you high, with you
’Cause everyday’s like talking in your sleep
Love is like a silhouette in dreams
Open up your heart, open up your heart
Open up your heart and let me pull you out
Everyday’s like talking in your sleep
Love is like a silhouette in dreams
Open up your heart, open up your heart
Open up your heart and let me pull you out of here
Open up your heart to me
The sun won’t shine if you’re not looking
Baby love is all that you need
When everyday’s like talking in your sleep
Love is like a silhouette in dreams
Open up your heart, open, open, open
Everyday’s like talking in your sleep
Love is like a silhouette in dreams
Open up your heart, open up your heart
Open up your heart and let me pull you out
Open up your heart, open up your heart
Open up your heart, open up your heart
Open up your heart, open up your heart
There is nothing unique sounding about the song and reading through the lyrics you can see there is something there …and then it hits you right in the middle, “The sun won’t shine if you’re not looking.” Therein lies the beauty of pop music, the power, and impact in its simplicity.
CRITICS:
Jody Rosen at Rolling Stone said: “Sounds like New Zealand’s answer to Björk. Vows gives R&B a wacky art-rock spin, with a cappella vocal chorales mutating into sumptuous funk pop.”
Kyle Anderson wrote in Entertainment Weekly: “Her sparking debut wants little to do with his [Gotye] Sting-isms. She’s more interested in multiculti chaos, darting between musical branches and gleefully snatching the juiciest fruits…”
Vows eventually saw the light of day in August of 2011 and the album would clock in at #3 in New Zealand and #5 in Australia. The album even crept into the #14 spot in the US.
Enough people have made the Bjork comment to make it noteworthy, but I don’t hear it. Kimbra has a serious degree of quirk to her, but she doesn’t venture as far off the pop reservation as Bjork does. Whether that is good or bad is anyone’s guess, but it doesn’t lessen the quality of the songs on Vows.