Gotye - C or D

the walk off the earth cover is shit tho

I imagine if you're Aussie you're pretty much as sick of him as we are of Adele.

Adele spent 23 WEEKS at #1 on the albums chart, had the 4th and 5th best-selling singles of the year, and Someone Like You only got knocked off #1 after 7 weeks by.... the above Gotye single.

How's his other stuff?

It's good! He has two pre-major-label albums which are much more sample-collagey, and a remixed-by-others album which I've never heard, but doesn't include this Supermayer version of Hearts A Mess (sic) from his 2006 album:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTQVN8k0ddk

lol xpost

most delayed xp ever surely.

I opened a bunch of tabs then did some actual work for 2 hours ;_;

I like 'Somebody That I Used To Know' but am kind of surprised it's charting. Hasn't it been around ages?

The only other thing I'm familiar with is the Supermayer remix of 'Heart's A Mess' which is great but has never really spurred me to check out the original, or anything else by him.

oh goddammit, here in Poland we're sick of this fucking thing! the song met sudden and abnormal popularity among some MOR/AAA ppl and recently got basically turned into a meme, rendering it unavoidable in the internet. there was a moment about 3 weeks ago when I suddenly realised it's EVERYWHERE around, posted either in an earnest manner or "ironically". ugh. and the song itself is painfully bland, chorus is the only worthwhile moment. dud/destroy.

keep reading this as gotze and thinking 'how the fuck could anyone think he is a dud? german messi!'

I like "Somebody That I Used To Know" but I found it cynical in its eagerness-to-please everyone even before it became massive over here (which I predicted - but it was hardly a risky gamble).

It'll probably win the JJJ Hottest 100 for 2011 here, which is like the equivalent of being the song of the year for NME I guess.

Supermayer remix of "Heart's a Mess" is all time though.

Also you don't need to hear the original. One of the clever things about the remix is how it neatly renders the original redundant.

the first few bars always seem promising and i tell myself that maybe it's not so bad after all but i really can't stand this song - even if it didn't remind me of sting, which it does

yeah it does sound like the police. it's a good song, one of the few radio things I've heard lately that caught my ear. I can see getting sick of it.

I like "Somebody That I Used To Know" but I found it cynical in its eagerness-to-please everyone

I think this is unfair, it's VERY flukey that it's hit so hard

plz don't be offended if u like this song (i like it too) but it strongly reminds me of cheryl cole's single w/ will.i.am

I think this is unfair, it's VERY flukey that it's hit so hard

I don't think it was a fluke at all! At least not in Australia.

In fact I basically said something to the effect of "I like this song in spite of the crushing sense of inevitability of its ultimate ubiquity etc." in my In Press review prior to its release. From about a minute in I was thinking "this will top JJJ Hottest 100 and probably the charts."

Adele spent 23 WEEKS at #1 on the albums chart, had the 4th and 5th best-selling singles of the year

I didn't know who that was until ~2 weeks ago.

it's not a fluke that the album did better than his previous - the shift to grunty mgt and major M&D shows hope enough of that - but the song doesn't feel like a calculated attempt to take the Hottest 100 and the charts; it's a small progression from his previous pop-song-structureyness on Hearts and Learnalil, doesn't sonically code as anything I think of as H100 fodder (though tbh when I finally heard the Angus & Julia around April that suprised me too). Actually I think it's probably been done a favour by coming in the wake of Rolling In The Deep and Someone Like You - voice to the forefront*, big-emotion-coding but musically presenting restraint and tension, not ostentation...

It's a really really good song, too, which I guess makes the success surprise me to some degree - writing in a narrative twist that requires you to actually follow the song feels counter-aspirational. (Small and obvious though the twist is! But it does work v well on first listen, and make the writing stand out on clothes-shop radio.)

I admire your astuteness though!

* actually this is the biggest thing to hint at chart/H100 aspiration compared to his previous work, where the mosaicing of samples is obviously something he's cared more about than presenting as a singer performance- or performer-wise

tbf I was driving for about ten minutes last invasion day and was delighted enough to hear Crave You at around 85 that I cheerfully failed to learn anything else that placed all day, I'm not rly speaking from an informed position

I dunno, there's something about its ornate-but-not-challenging chamber-pop feel which just immediately struck me as catnip for (what has always felt like) the default alterna-pop mindset of so many twenty-to-thirty-something middle class Australians. Without necessarily framing it in words I think listeners inevitably respond well to its negotiation of smallness and largeness, sweetness and spite, male and female; the, as you say, "counter-aspirational" narrative strategy.

"Cynical" is the wrong word for all of this - as if doing any of the above is bad! - but that immediate sense of inevitability was almost overwhelming and I had to swim against its current when I was trying to connect with the song.

well he normally makes accessible cool dad music, even in the basics. as far as i can tell though, its adoption is in a similar vein to early beck - his music has only happened to coincide with the current pop zeitgeist or w/e, as opposed to being a "cynical" moneygrub.

It'll probably win the JJJ Hottest 100 for 2011 here, which is like the equivalent of being the song of the year for NME I guess.

I dunno, there's something about its ornate-but-not-challenging chamber-pop feel which just immediately struck me as catnip for (what has always felt like) the default alterna-pop mindset of so many twenty-to-thirty-something middle class Australians.

Hmm, interesting. I think I see where yr coming from, but I think it's unpredictable when one of these hits. Otherwise the first Peccadillo album would have gone platinum and Blow Up The Pokies would never have (been able to) happened! Abby Dobson and Dean Manning wouldn't be playing cafes and upstairs rooms of pubs separately. The second Frente album would have done better than the first, and the reunion EP would have sold 10,000, not 1,000.

as if doing any of the above is bad!

Yes, if it was all calculated and this level of success hoped for then I'm delighted for him.

personally i saw surprised to see it become so big a hit, but then i never would have expected the twerps to be australia's next big hope overseas either

Wait there is actually an Australian band called The Twerps?

I was really surprised to open this thread and hear it was massive anywhere, I just thought of it as a one-off that was likely to slink into obscurity. But no I can totally see it appealing to that Feist demographic.

indeed there is

Evidence! This is what I wrote for the local rag at the beginning of July:

GOTYE ft. KIMBRA
Somebody That I Used To Know
(Universal)

I’ll pay Gotye a backhanded compliment and say they’re increasingly resembling late 90s Radiohead, their emotional but unpredictable art-pop facilitating alt-rock dudes’ soul-searching with a surgeon’s precision. This makes me want to resent the inevitability with which their sighing, keening ramshackle break-up ode Somebody That I Used To Know is gonna scrape the top of the JJJ Hottest 100, but ultimately this is just undeniably pretty, ornate tearjerker chamber-pop.

This is pretty cool:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9NF2edxy-M

Oddly enough, I came across that on Alex in NYC's blog!

It's way out of my usual wheelhouse, but I came across the "Somebody I used to Know" earworm and was pretty impressed. None of his other tunes really are quite as clever, but this guy Gotye really nailed this one. It's a great pop song.

It's probably a matter of days until this thing infects the US. It appears from this thread the earworm has already infected other regions.

Don't get the appeal of this at all. Lyrically mediocre and melodically blah.

I prefer "Easy Way Out" to the big hit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYSspbfri_s

Supermayer remix of "Heart's a Mess" is all time though.

Also you don't need to hear the original. One of the clever things about the remix is how it neatly renders the original redundant.

― Tim F, Tuesday, January 17, 2012 9:26 PM (1 week ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Yah, everything you need to know about Gotye is that he rejected their remix.

First came across this via this video, which is pretty cool. The song's catchy, if a bit AOR

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9NF2edxy-M&feature=youtube_gdata_player

First came across this via this video, which is pretty cool.

― I want your nose, your shoes and your unicycle (dog latin), Tuesday, 24 January 2012 20:04 (1 hour ago)

did you come across it six posts up? ;)

This is pretty cool:

― Girl I want to take you to a JBR (jaymc), Saturday, 21 January 2012 05:54 (3 days ago)

Yah, everything you need to know about Gotye is that he rejected their remix.

Rejected? It's on the iTunes single, on Total 10, and was promoed by the label that did a 7" in the UK - there was no physical single here.

After Gotye rejected it Supermayer leaked/dumped it (via Sherburne if I recall but I'm probably wrong there) - people loved it so they ended up properly releasing it.

Lah = http://phs.abstractdynamics.org/2008/06/got_gotye.html

I don't think Goodyear is trying to be a star but I by jingo, I certainly don't mind if he does. He's a good bloke.

Dude makes good music. Not great, but good. It's a little bit too pedestrian to rise to a higher level (that song is very good but not earth shattering brilliant).

did you come across it six posts up? ;)

Ah sorry, I was on the train on my iphone so I didn't get to check each link. I think I prefer the guitar cover version.

well if that's the case (cf sherburne blog - the comment on GWFA no longer exists), it was commissioned by the UK licensee, rejected by the UK licensee, and then approved by Gotye?

omg i kind of like this guy?

i think i'm getting really old.

world domination continues - it's up to #58 in USA, going top 10 in the UK, and top 40 in ILM EOY poll.

Kimbra is next.

Where are the balearic disco/yacht pop remixes of this song? They must exist.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FB2xyzh4aAo

That's okay but not in the Africa/Everywhere universe I was hoping for.

even if it didn't remind me of sting, which it does

First thing I thought of as well.

HOW CAN THIS STILL BE #1????

God

This song is creeping toward "Rolling in the Deep" levels of ubiquity. I noticed he was supposed to play this small club in Chicago, then it was bumped up to a medium theater, and now it's a big 5000 seater. And yet every time I hear it I think of "King of Pain."

There's some David Guetta song in the charts now that starts off sounding like the Police as well. Is it "Titanium"? I can't remember. At any rate it's all very disturbing.

i still don't mind it, but then i don't pay much attention to radio/tv and haven't really noticed its ubiquity. Quite nice to see a song actually sticking to number one for a change.

my top 40 station plays a remix too but it's even more dull than that one

For most of the eighties and nineties he wrote "Chart Beat" for Billboard though -- chart nonsense for non-sports nerds.

well that would have been precisely the time before i had regular access to Billboard, hence why i was unfamiliar with the name. i wasn't trying to knock him btw, his column seems good, just that i never expect to find anything of quality on Yahoo!

still keep reading this as "goyte"

good song anyways, not a favorite

Must've read Grein back when I was photocopying the Hot 100 at the library, but the name doesn't ring a bell. Not like Joel Whitburn (to whom I wrote a fan letter), at least.

Younger (not entirely young) co-worker playing Somebody on repeat this morning.

http://www.spin.com/articles/gotye-bummed-glee-did-him-wrong

aww crap just developed InstaCrush because of that picture

Just glad for him that he got to #1 before the Glee cover version could get these first.

There's something ironic about a song being so popular that they need to remix it to get it airplay on top 40 ...

a lot of pop stations are fine playing the original version, some aren't. same thing happened with "Somebody Like You" last year, some stations were so flummoxed by the idea of playing a quiet piano ballad that they used a garish dance mix instead.

Yeah, but clearly the song is massively popular, so ... people like it? Presumably the original version?

They didn't remix Kanye's "808s" stuff, did they?

This "radio mix" is hilarious

"omg the percussion is too subtle, someone fire up Garageband STAT"

why would 808s & Heartbreak get remixed? these songs aren't 'rhythmic' enough for some pop stations, nobody's going to add a drum machine to a record that already has a drum machine to make it more radio-friendly

i mean i'm guessing the only stations choosing the Gotye or Adele remixes over the originals are the ones known as 'rhythmic top 40 stations'

I didn't think it was the lack of drum machine that made this a problem for top 40, but rather the lack of brisk tempo and a big beat. The Kanye stuff when it was on the radio was like this weird oasis of quiet and space floating interrupting all the usual stuff. They didn't artificially boost its tempo with a pre-fab backbeat.

that Spin page won't show any photos or text for me, and I updated Firefox three days ago. sort it out Whiney

They didn't remix Kanye's "808s" stuff, did they?

― Josh in Chicago, Monday, April 23, 2012 9:16 AM Bookmark

why would 808s & Heartbreak get remixed? these songs aren't 'rhythmic' enough for some pop stations, nobody's going to add a drum machine to a record that already has a drum machine to make it more radio-friendly

― Poor Turrican (some dude), Monday, April 23, 2012 9:20 AM Bookmark

the rar/r&b station here played a remixed version of "Love Lockdown" with a backbeat

rap* although i guess these days .rar/r&b is a close enough approximation

I didn't think it was the lack of drum machine that made this a problem for top 40, but rather the lack of brisk tempo and a big beat. The Kanye stuff when it was on the radio was like this weird oasis of quiet and space floating interrupting all the usual stuff. They didn't artificially boost its tempo with a pre-fab backbeat.

― Josh in Chicago, Monday, April 23, 2012 12:22 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark

"Heartless" sounded like a ton of other stuff already on the radio at the time, wasn't very quiet at all, and that was the only song off that record that was really big on radio. didn't know about the "Love Lockdown" remix Rev is talking about, though.

heard the Gotye remix on a pop station for the first time today, god that's terrible.

actually ashamed I didn't think of this myself. Missed opportunities!

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/s720x720/181314_10150895930179907_501504906_9510972_551997056_n.jpg

lol

the first time i heard the song in passing i thought that was what that line was about

Hearing him on SNL again reminded me: I ctrl+f-ed it and apparently I'm the only one here who thinks he sounds like Ozzy, especially in the chorus?

Oh, Google is my friend. Apparently I'm not the only one on the whole of the internet to think this.

ha, never would've occurred to me on my own but i can hear it

i think it might be specifically the doubling or reverb used on his voice on "Someone" that's probably similarly to the way Ozzy's voice was mixed circa Blizzard of Ozz

Oh it's been bugging me for ages who he reminded me of. Ozzy is totally it.

Shit. You guys are right. And now I'm pissed off, because I can't UNhear it.

Ha,

yeah. Will mention it to our Alice, with reference to "Changes", it's quite clear.

ha ha, that Ozzy thing is great. Now the song is enjoyable!

I'm almost senselessly drunk and "Somebody" seems really profound right now. Pretty sure I just bought it on iTunes.

Thought I had never heard this but just heard it in the gym, caught the title lyric, realized that this was "Somebody That I Used To Know" -- I've heard it a million times, of course, but truly thought it was some late-model Sting single I hadn't learned the name of.

gotye!

This was posted on his website in October 2014 (three days before this thread was last revived).

http://i.imgur.com/BHgYMiF.png

I don't so much care that he "retired" (or didn't), or even that his announcement is really weird. I'm just more surprised that no one really covered it only two years removed from him having one of the biggest international hits in recent memory.

he then posted another post contradicted that post even further, so who knows

http://i.imgur.com/P9IdnFn.png

Ah, so homey is just a weirdo.

gotye west

there will be no gotye...

...GOT YE!

i drank all night with this dude at a bar he's really kewl

Basics are still touring.

I was just reading the new Tape Op and there's a great feature on the guy. Apparently he's really gotten into the ondioline, not just playing it but paying for historic restorations and in particular archiving the works of Jean-Jacques Perrey.

Here's a profile from Petrusich from last summer:

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-australian-musician-gotye-resurrects-the-sounds-of-the-ondioline

His 2004 Depeche Mode cover for indie electronic label Groovescooter is now available on Bandcamp, either as a 'single' or on the covers album it came from.