Who is Woodkid you ask? Well, he is French, he’s a solo artist, he at first just directed videos for other artists including Lana Del Rey’s Born To Die, but now he’s branched off and is now creating his very own material- and as you might imagine, the direction of his own music videos. Woodkid had an equal hand in crafting Pharrell’s 24-hour music video project for Happy and arguably his ‘big break’ was when o2 used his track Run Boy Run across a variety of their adverts.
The Golden Age is like nothing I’ve heard before, it’s such a melancholic, ‘floaty’ album, yet it possesses dark traits filled with sinister strings and haunting piano chords. His voice follows in suite and clouds the album along with the piano, with what I can only describe as ‘a powerful sense of dread‘ yet the album retains its breezy aura, The Shore is the best example of this, a song with two such oppositional qualities that what results its something simply indescribable.
Before I knew it, Woodkid’s debut LP was over, and it was almost like I’d listened to a film score. The music provides such imagery with church bells and other production qualities, that during songs like Ghost Lights or Stabat Mater leave you picturing a dramatic fight scene between two armies, upon horseback armed with muskets, with the song playing in the background.
At times, you feel the frenchman covers the same ground with it often becoming a tad repetitive and Woodkid is certainly as acquired taste, however it is an all new sound that is near impossible to categorise, there isn’t much like this out at the moment and I’d recommend you give The Golden Age a listen.
Verdict – WWW
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