Kimbra is headed to Australia for a co-headline tour with fellow musical matriarch Janelle Monae, and collaboration appears to be the driving force of the New Zealander’s brand new album.
Case in point: the very first taste of the follow-up to Vows, an eclectic musical collage featuring Muse frontman Matt Bellamy called ’90s music’.
The Muse mad professor lends his guitar skills to the track, rather than his operatic vocals, and his bombastic guitars are used more as a needling texture in the bubbling soundscape, which rides along on the hook of ‘everyday we listen to 90s music‘, while name-checking RnB radio favourites of the decade like TLC and Mary J. Blige. There’s also some sneaky vocals and synths work from Mark Foster (of Foster The People).
The single, which got its world premiere on Triple J last night, shines with Kimbra’s diverse range of musical influences, a musical spell that welds prog rock and pop together with a funked-up back-end and plenty of soul to support the singer’s elastic vocal displays; it also bodes very well for the the as-yet untitled new Kimbra album it’s heralding.
Along with Bellamy, other special guests on Kimbra’s star-studded LP include Silverchair’s Daniel Johns, Van Dyke Parks, Thundercat, Bilal, Mark Foster (Foster The People), Keefus Green, John Legend, along with members of Dirty Projectors, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, QOTSA, The Mars Volta, and The Dillinger Escape Plan.
Aussie fans will be among the first to hear the new material in the live setting when Kimbra teams up with Janelle Monae for The Golden Electric Tour this May.
