Details about Kimbra’s sophomore album, The Golden Echo have so far been scarce. We’ve heard the first single, 90s Music, and been treated to the album cover but any hopes we had of hearing more were dashed when her tour with Janelle Monae was cancelled last week due to illness.
Today, Kimbra took to Twitter to answer questions about the new album. Here’s a few things we learnt from #AskKimbra:
The album is out in August
Mark your calendars, you’ve got about three months to wait.
The album was produced by herself, Rich Costey and friends
Kimbra has hinted at some pretty impressive guests on the album including Muse-frontman, Matt Bellamy on the latest single 90s Music. But the man behind most of the album is LA-producer Rich Costey. Costey’s production credits stem from Foster The People to Muse and The Vaccines, so he’s a pretty big deal.
Foster The People’s Mark Foster is also set to feature on the album as is Silverchair’s Daniel Johns and the Dirty Projecter’s Dave Longstreth. She worked with Thundercat on six of the songs while she was most excited to work with Bilal and the legendary Van Dyke Parks.
She also produced a song with Flying Lotus, however, it will not be on the album.
It’s gonna be a deep, thought-provoking, emotional ride
I hope you’re prepared.
According to #AskKimbra, she is most excited about showing us ‘The evolution of sounds & the deeper messages of the songs’. She added to that saying it was “more fearless, rhythmically driven, sonically adventurous!” Lyrically, “There’s a strong, inspired sentiment. Starts in a place of youth & ventures many places.”
The Golden Echo’s inspirations stem far and wide
“Adventure, ideas of what is ‘sacred’, reflections (inward&outward)” are Kimbra’s main inspirations for the album. It looks like we’ll be doing a lot of soul-searching with the Kiwi which will be nice and interpersonal.
She also revealed that she wanted 90s Music to sound like Deerhoof hanging out on Sesame St. and that the album was inspired by a dream she had and “A flower called Narcissus Golden Echo. Greek Mythology & Thomas Merton.” That is one chaotic mind.
There is a song that features a ‘boss’
She doesn’t say who it is but she can’t wait for us to hear it. Most would assume it’s Bruce Springsteen, however, somehow that seems pretty unattainable.
We will settle for Michael Scott.
It’s similar to Vows in ‘intention’ and ‘spirit’
So basically not at all.
She still has more names in mind to collaborate with
Phillip Glass or Wes Anderson are the men on her hit list.
There are 12 songs on the album
Plus a few cheeky bonus tracks. The last track on the album is her favourite.
And the one you’ve all been waiting for: there will be crazy polyrhythmic prog breakdowns in a time signature other than 6/8
Phew.