Song Review - 90s Music

90s Music

by Kimbra

 Album: TBA (2nd half, 2014)

Some old song I know,

Won't get out of my head,

Though the feeling's gone,

The love ain't disappeared...

All I want to write is an excited squeal. Something like, "aaaaiiiiiieeeeeeeEEEEeeeeeeEEEEEEeeee!"

Yes, Kimbra Johnson is back and, just like you and me, she has a thang for all things 90s music. Sonically, the first taste of Kimbra's sophomore album is a huge departure from the knockout debut, Vows. And I mean huge. There's no resting on laurels here, as we're taken on an experimental electronic romp that opens up more and more with each listen. For anyone expecting 'Cameo Lover' version 2.0, you're going to be disappointed. This isn't your standard radio pop. But it sure should be! 

After the monster success of Gotye and Kimbra's 'Somebody That I Used To Know', there must have been calls from the who's-who of pop producers, ready to take Kimbra and morph her into the next commercial radio-friendly star. '90s Music' is not what we would have gotten had that happened. This is some slow-clap starting, mighty ambition right here. The sound of 90s R&B and bubblegum pop thrown into a blender with what the future might sound like... that's what this is. I'm looking at the online reaction and no one knows how to describe this. It's amazing that it can't be shoehorned and pigeonholed into a category... labelled and dropped into a collection of similar artists.

Kimbra's vocals remain stellar, the beats are just ridiculously good, the zombie-like delivery of "everyday be listening to 90s music" makes me think of the moshing teens at Lollapalooza on The Simpsons and that chorus is... aaaaiiiiiiieeeeeeeeEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeEEEEEEEeeeee... So it's quite good, yeah? This is but a preview of the crazy adventure Kimbra will be taking us on later in the year with her second album. It's going to be a long wait that will be temporarily sated by seeing Kimbra performing new tracks alongside Janelle Monae this month in Brisbane! If you're in Australia or New Zealand, you'd better snap up tickets while you still can!

Matt Bond gives '90s Music' four Missy Elliott heads out of five...