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23. Making Mirrors - Gotye (2011)

Indie Pop

If we’re going to talk about crowning a “song of the decade”, it would be tough to argue against Gotye’s massive hit “Somebody That I Used to Know”. The huge single from his third album Making Mirrors rocketed Gotye into international success. And it was well-deserved. The song is one of the best breakup songs ever, eloquently condensing turbulent and ubiquitous post-breakup emotions into the reluctant admission “Now you’re just somebody that I used to know”. 

But for all the attention “Somebody That I Used to Know” got, the rest of the album is just as good, and at times even better. Sprawling across a slew of genres and styles, Making Mirrors meanders slowly with casual confidence. It highlights the prodigious talent of the man who made it. The abundantly upbeat “I Feel Better” has an 80’s pop feel to it, as does the eminently smile-inducing follow-up track “In Your Light”. Frequent and bold brass section interjections inflate the album’s grandiosity and make you forget it’s largely a product of a single musician. Just when you’re starting to get a sense of where the album is going, “State of the Art” hits you like a wicked crossover, juking you right out of your shoes. With autotuned baritone verses and a diabolical cacophony of experimental synths, samples, horns and strings all composing an ode to cutting edge home entertainment technology, the song concludes with a disclaimer “incidentally, on the track you just heard, there were no keyboard performances, just the occasional pushing of buttons.” Hilarious! 

*image; cover art for the album Making Mirrors by Gotye