Artist
Gotye Feat. Kimbra
Why we feature this artist The second voice changes everything that came before Somebody That I Used to Know is built around an argument the listener initially hears from only one side. Gotye's 2011 recording with Kimbra lets a restrained, wounded opening grow…
- From
- Australia, New Zealand
- Sound
- Indie pop, art pop
Start with the music
Tracks to explore
The artist, in context
The story of Gotye Feat. Kimbra
Why we feature this artist
The second voice changes everything that came before
Somebody That I Used to Know is built around an argument the listener initially hears from only one side. Gotye's 2011 recording with Kimbra lets a restrained, wounded opening grow into a larger complaint, then brings in a second voice that changes the meaning of the scene. The duet is not decoration around a hit chorus; it is the mechanism that makes the song work.
A small sound can carry a large feeling
The arrangement on Making Mirrors is unusually exposed for a record that travelled so widely. A dry, repeating instrumental pattern leaves plenty of air around the singing. Gotye moves from a close, controlled tone into a much more forceful refrain, so the change in vocal scale becomes one of the track's main events.
His production does not fill every opening as the song develops. Small sounds retain their separate edges, with percussion and melodic fragments giving the silence a shape. That detail makes the record feel handmade even when the chorus reaches its most expansive point.
Kimbra is an answering character
Kimbra's entrance interrupts the first account rather than simply agreeing with it. Her part offers another reading of the relationship, delivered with a sharper sense of accusation. The contrast makes the earlier lines feel less settled, turning a private grievance into a scene with competing memories.
The painted-body video reinforces the idea of closeness becoming separation, but the music already contains that movement. Two voices can share a track and still fail to agree on what happened. The recording's lasting unease comes from allowing both performances to remain convincing without providing a tidy judgment between them.
Essential releases
Somebody That I Used to Know
The Making Mirrors recording uses Kimbra’s answering part to transform Gotye’s opening account, with a sparse arrangement keeping the disagreement in clear focus.