For months I’ve been intending to see if I could find out more about this singer Kimbra after having heard her performance in Gotye’s (pronounced Gautier ;)) Somebody That I Used To Know, a monster hit and video 458 million hits currently on Youtube. Turns out she has been quietly building quite a substantial career for herself outside the U.S. (she’s from New Zealand by way of Australia) and has a number of excellent performance available for view on Youtube, including some superb official videos from her debut album Vows which has been out for a couple of years now.
Kimbra has a new album due to come out after the first of the year, and so to do my part to try to bring her to the attention of as many people as I can here in the U.S., I thought I’d post some of my favorite performances, a few of her videos, and a smattering of other bits of info for the benefit of anyone who’d like to see them.
I’m going to start with what I think are her best vocal performances, which is a set recorded at Sing Sing Studios in Melbourne. I’d suggest that if you have time you listen to each song all the way through as they almost invariably get better and better as the song progresses. If you only have time for one, I’d suggest her cover of Nina Simone’s Plain Gold Ring. All the other songs are from her album Vows and consist of songs written and recorded mostly when she was sixteen to twenty years old. I’ve long thought that the truly great artists become great very early on, and usually by their early twenties (The Beatles, Steely Dan, Barbara Streisand, Elton John, etc.) and in my opinion this young lady is destined for greatness. (Her band ain’t chopped liver either.)
I’m going to post a lot of stuff here with the idea in mind that it probably won’t be taken in all at once but explored as time and inclination permits. I hope you enjoy it. Anyway, here goes…
The Sing Sing performances:
Good Intent (about a husband with a weakness for prostitutes and a wife having trouble with forgiveness. The official video is excellent.)
Settle Down (the looping machine is a TC-Helicon VoiceLive Touch, not autotune)
Cameo Lover
A few Official videos:
I think this video is stunning. As mentioned above, it’s about a husband with a weakness for prostitutes (amusingly referred to as crickets) and his wife who’s having trouble resolving herself to forgive him. The husband in the dark suit represents the true husband’s dark side, enticing him to give in and walk to the red light, the alley, and the hookers, while the dancer in white is his good side and fighting to to keep him from surrendering to further temptation. His wife, and entertainer apparently, is seen in her dressing room contemplating a diamond necklace he’s given her by way of apology in the hope of forgiveness. Her real self is also represented by the woman in the middle, the woman in red portrays her stronger, less forging side, and the woman in white represents her good and forgiving nature (note that she’s the one seen wearing the necklace). During the dance floor sequence she struggles with her feelings, alternately enticing and pushing him away, only to allow herself to be drawn back in once again. The video ends with their situation still unresolved, as reflected by the final, unfinished lyric, “and soon you’re playing dice for a…”.
Absolutely brilliant! (And no, I didn’t figure all that out myself. I had to ask the internet. ;))
Cameo Lover An aural and visual pep pill. If this vid doesn’t leave you feeling uplifted I can’t imagine what would. Features a guy at the end that even I can tell is stunningly attractive.
Settle Down Utilizes a couple of young girls, sixties styles, and burning dolls to illustrate the naive ideas the protagonist has toward romance and perfect married life, and their ultimate destruction.
Come Into My Head It’s unusual to see such a gorgeous woman acting so wacky. Her face at 2:55 has to be seen to be believed. 
Some odds and ends:
If you’re a music techie you might enjoy this interview, in which Kimbra talks about her performance with Van Dyke Parks and the process of recording her upcoming album. If you’re not a techie, you may enjoy the videos and songs it contains anyway.
A video recorded when she was sixteen and apparently in a Taylor Swift phase.
Oops, maybe not. Here’s another from the same period that’s actually pretty damn good.
I Look To You with Miami Horror. Killer baseline, dreamy vocals and some cool dresses.
A really nice acoustic version of Cameo Lover.
And last but far from least, this version of Settle Down which was performed at the 2012 ARIA award show (Australia’s grammys), after which Kimbra was awarded Best Female Artist for the second year in a row! I posted this video in another thread already but thought I’d post it here too just because it’s so damn tasty. If you liked the Settle Down video above, this is the same song only kicked up about five notches. Don’t know what was up with the dress, sort of like a Picasso painting impaled on a red ostrich. But an absolutely dynamite performance anyway that really shouldn’t be missed.
Okay, that’s it. If you like what you saw here, keep an eye out. Her new album should be coming out in the next few weeks.
Oh, yeah! The Sing Sing version of Plain Gold Ring is available at the iTunes music store. So is Vows.