The next, you’re drowning in bills, worrying about the economy with the only the stability of Pointless being on at exactly 5:15pm every weekday. It’s this jarring and often extremely sudden transition that is tackled in Yoann Lemoine AKA Woodkid’s debut album, ‘The Golden Age’.
Prior to making music, Lemoine has directed videos for Drake’s Take Care and Lana Del Rey’s Born to Die, which makes the extraordinarily cinematic feel of ‘The Golden Age’ come as no surprise. Both the aforementioned music videos had the feel of a short art film, with a sombre colour palette alongside its stylistic direction; ‘The Golden Age’ is very much a musical companion to Lemoine’s directing style. Lemoine’s gritty, Gallic vocals are accompanied by booming military drums and a cacophony of brass instruments that effectively capture the confusion of growing up. There’s so much going on that, sometimes, it all gets a bit too much and, in some regards, this could quite easily put some people off but, thematically, it works. The album is bookended by tracks that follow a very simple piano line with ‘The Golden Age’ being a lament of childhood, while ‘The Other Side’ feels more sinister with the quiet military drums in the background as the protagonist of the album (the “boy” of ‘Run Boy Run’) sheds the last his innocence, as though there has been an ominous tolling bell of inevitability, after trying to grasp onto whatever part of childhood he can, most obviously seen in ‘Run Boy Run’ where the sweeping string section imbues a sense of hope.
Stylistically, the album is very cinematic. The opening strings on ‘The Great Escape’ feel like they could’ve been ripped straight from a 1960s romance and the ending of ‘The Shore’ could quite easily feature in any Bond film. The orchestration could be enough to make this an endearing album (and, to some, probably a better one) but it’s Lemoine’s unique, rich vocals that anchor the album down, keeping it from floating off in its flights of orchestral fancy. To some, however, it could be Lemoine’s vocals that could put many off. His Gallic tones are very marmite, much in the way that Tom Waits’s gravelly tones might be to others. But despite this, everything that surrounds it is fantastically cinematic, giving the album an air of a dark fairy tale.
4/5
Recommended download: ‘Run Boy Run’
