The Golden Echo

The Golden Echo is the second studio album by New Zealand recording artist Kimbra, released by Warner Bros. Records in the United States on 19 August 2014.

The Golden Echo
Studio album by Kimbra
Released	15 August 2014 (2014-08-15)
Genre	Art pop[1]
Length	60:03
Label	Warner Bros.
Producer	Keefus Ciancia, Rich Costey (exec.), Taylor Graves, John Hill, Kimbra Johnson, Major Dudes, Mystery Skulls, M-Phazes, Al Shux, Surahn Sidhu, Dave Tozer, Fagan Wilcox
Kimbra chronology
Vows (2011) The Golden Echo (2014) Primal Heart (2018)
Singles from The Golden Echo
"90s Music" Released: 19 May 2014[2] "Miracle" Released: 24 July 2014[3] "Goldmine" Released: 15 July 2015[4]

Background

Kimbra was inspired by Greek mythology for the album and spent time in a small sheep farm in the middle of Los Angeles. Kimbra went to the farm the day after the 2013 Grammys. "I'd been caught up with all the Grammy and Gotye stuff happening, and the touring, the constant affirmation— or praise, or criticism, or self-reflection— everywhere," she said. "You get wrapped up in it. Then here I was chilling with a bunch of sheep. And they don't give a crap who you are. You're not special to them. You spend time with them and there's this beautiful kind of harmony of how everything works in that environment. It was a really great space to create."[5]

Cover

The cover and all the photographs of The Golden Echo's booklet were shot by Thom Kerr, who also directed the music video for "Miracle".[6]

Reception

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	70/100[7]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[8]
Consequence of Sound	B-[9]
Exclaim!	8/10[10]
Los Angeles Times	[11]
Paste	7/10[12]
Pitchfork	4.3/10[13]
PopMatters	[14]
Rolling Stone Australia	[15]
Spin	7/10[16]

The Golden Echo received generally positive reviews from critics. On Metacritic, the album obtained a normalised score of 70 out of 100, based on reviews from 12 selected mainstream critics.[7]

Track listing

The Golden Echo — Standard edition

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Producer(s)	Length
1.	"Teen Heat"	Kimbra Lee Johnson Daniel Johns	Rich Costey Kimbra	4:44
2.	"90s Music" (featuring Matt Bellamy)	Johnson Mark Foster Timon Martin Stephen McQuinn Matt Morris	Costey Kimbra Major Dudes	3:36
3.	"Carolina"	Johnson Keith Ciancia Zachary Dawes Tyler Parkford Michael Shuman	Kimbra Keefus Ciancia	4:18
4.	"Goldmine"	Johnson Fraser Thornycroft-Smith	Costey Kimbra John Hill Al Shux M-Phazes^[b]	4:40
5.	"Miracle"	Johnson Stephen Bruner Johns	Costey Kimbra Mystery Skulls^[b]	4:49
6.	"Rescue Him"	Johnson Surahn Sidhu	Kimbra Sidhu	5:34
7.	"Madhouse"	Johnson S. Bruner Joel Whitley Ron Bruner	Costey Kimbra M-Phazes^[b]	4:04
8.	"Everlovin' Ya" (featuring Bilal)	Johnson Taylor Graves	Kimbra Graves Costey^[a]	4:44
9.	"As You Are"	Johnson Johns	Kimbra Costey^[a]	5:21
10.	"Love in High Places"	Johnson Ciancia Sonny J Mason Morris Kaveh Rastegar	Kimbra Ciancia	5:15
11.	"Nobody But You"	Johnson John Stephens Sidhu Dave Tozer	Costey Kimbra Tozer^[a] Sidhu^[a]	5:22
12.	"Waltz Me to the Grave"	Johnson Fagan Wilcox	Kimbra Wilcox Costey^[a]	7:30
Total length:				60:03

The Golden Echo — Vinyl edition

No.	Title	Length
13.	"Vanity Fair"	3:52
Total length:		63:55

The Golden Echo — Deluxe edition[17]

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Producer(s)	Length
13.	"Slum Love" (featuring Omar Rodríguez-López)	Johnson Wilcox	Costey Kimbra	5:04
14.	"Sugar Lies" (featuring Ben Weinman)	Johnson Francis White	Kimbra	4:10
15.	"The Magic Hour"	Johnson White	Kimbra	4:31
Total length:				73:49

Credits and personnel

Credits adapted from the liner notes of The Golden Echo[18]

Kimbra Johnson - vocals (all tracks); production (all tracks) Matt Bellamy - guitar (track 2) Bilal - featured artist Mario Borgatta - assistant Ron Bruner - writer (track 7) Thundercat - writer (tracks 5, 7) Keefus Ciancia - production (track 3) Martin Cooke - engineer Rich Costey - production (tracks 2, 4-5, 7-9, 11-12); executive producer; mixing Zachary Dawes - writer (track 3) Mark Foster - writer (track 2) Nicolas Fournier - engineer Fraser T. Smith - writer (track 4) Taylor Graves - writer and production (track 8) Nick Haussling - A&R Bo Hill - engineer John Hill - engineer

Daniel Johns - writer (tracks 1, 5, 9) Thom Kerr - artwork and photography John Legend - writer (track 11) Bob Ludwig - mastering M-Phazes - production (track 5) Major Dudes - production (track 2) Timon Martin - writer (track 2) Sonny J. Mason - writer, drums (track 10) Stephen McQuinn - writer (track 2) Matt Morris - writer (tracks 2, 10) Tyler Parkford - writer (track 3) Kaveh Rastegar - writer (track 10) John "JR" Robinson - drums Omar Rodríguez-López - guitar (track 13)[19] Michael Shuman - writer (track 3) Surahn "Sid" Sidhu - writing and production (track 6) Alex Tenta - design and layout Dave Tozer - writing and production (track 11) Lenny Waronker - A&R Ben Weinman - guitar (track 14)[20] Joel Whitley - writer (track 7) Fagan Wilcox - writing and production (track 12)

Charts

Chart (2014)	Peak position
Australian Albums (ARIA)[21]	5
New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)[22]	5
US Billboard 200[23]	43

References

1. "Review: Kimbra - The Golden Echo - Sputnikmusic". Retrieved 21 January 2016.
2. "Amazon.com: 90s Music: Kimbra: MP3 Downloads". Amazon.com. Retrieved 10 June 2015.
3. "Amazon.com: Miracle: Kimbra: MP3 Downloads". Amazon.com. Retrieved 10 June 2015.
4. Johnson, Kimbra (15 July 2015). "Goldmine - Kimbra | The Official Website Videos". Kimbramusic.com. Warner Bros. Records. Retrieved 24 December 2015.
5. "Kimbra". urbanscapes.com.my. Archived from the original on 5 December 2014. Retrieved 28 November 2014.
6. "The Golden Echo - Kimbra - Credits - AllMusic". AllMusic. 19 August 2014. Retrieved 25 January 2015.
7. "Reviews for The Golden Echo by Kimbra". Metacritic. Retrieved 24 August 2014.
8. "The Golden Echo - Kimbra". AllMusic. Retrieved 11 November 2014.
9. "Kimbra – The Golden Echo". Consequence of Sound. Retrieved 11 November 2014.
10. "Kimbra - The Golden Echo • Pop & Rock Reviews • exclaim.ca". Exclaim!. Retrieved 11 November 2014.
11. "Review: Kimbra cooks up virtual layer cake of sound - LA Times". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 11 November 2014.
12. "Kimbra: The Golden Echo Review :: Music :: Reviews :: Paste". Paste Magazine. Retrieved 11 November 2014.
13. "Kimbra: The Golden Echo - Album Reviews - Pitchfork". Pitchfork. Retrieved 11 November 2014.
14. "Kimbra: The Golden Echo - PopMatters". PopMatters. Retrieved 11 November 2014.
15. "Rolling Stone Australia — Kimbra - The Golden Echo". Rolling Stone Australia. Archived from the original on 11 November 2014. Retrieved 11 November 2014.
16. "Kimbra, 'The Golden Echo' Review". Spin. Retrieved 11 November 2014.
17. "Amazon.com - The Golden Echo (Deluxe Version) by Kimbra". Amazon.com. Retrieved 26 August 2014.
18. The Golden Echo (CD liner notes). Kimbra. Warner Bros. Records. 2014.CS1 maint: others (link)
19. Crandell, Evan (17 October 2014). "Kimbra's Shining Moment: A Review of "The Golden Echo"". 24ourmusic.net. Archived from the original on 2 February 2018. Retrieved 2 February 2018.
20. "Kimbra Talks Collaborating with The Dillinger Escape Plan". Geargods.net. 4 May 2015. Retrieved 2 February 2018.
21. "Australiancharts.com – Kimbra – The Golden Echo". Hung Medien. Retrieved 28 August 2014.
22. "Charts.nz – Kimbra – The Golden Echo". Hung Medien. Retrieved 28 August 2014.
23. "Kimbra Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard. Retrieved 29 August 2014.