The Golden Age Isn’t Over
Before he took up music, neofolk artist Yoann Lemoine AKA Woodkid built a career out of directing music videos for pop royalty, including big names such as Katy Perry and Lana Del Rey.
According to Wikipedia, he became a musician because on a video shoot, singer-songwriter Richie Havens bequeathed upon him a banjo.
If this internet-fueled fable is true, we owe Havens a debt of gratitude for enabling Woodkid to get in touch with his musical side–– his album The Golden Age, released last March, is a marvel.
Maybe I’m a little late to the party here, but I don’t think that this album has an expiration date, and I’m willing to back that statement up by reviewing it now.In the first track of the album of the same name, over piano riffs and orchestral swells that would make any Muse fan sigh with appreciation, Lemoine intones that “the golden age is over.”
I must beg to differ; The Golden Age is an album pulled clean out of time, ageless. It’s an aural Renaissance.
The tracks make use of a full orchestra’s worth of instruments—this is not music brought to you by your simplistic drum and guitar duo, it’s a full-blown, full-scale album, a cinematic score with a folk pulse and lyrics to match.
The album also foregoes synth pop in lieu of music. The instrumental work is larger than life, backing up the lost soul personified in Lemoine’s voice.
Moments of tremulous violin bring up memories of the Grace Kelly era of cinema, while kettle drums and a taut percussion section elevate tracks to war cries of eras long since past. There’s something modern, something medieval and something in between at work here.
I’m not sure what it is, exactly, I just know that it turned into some savagely epic music.
Even with all of this going on, tracks such as “I Love You,” a medium paced beat over church worthy pipe organs, prove to be as danceable as they are epic. You can’t help but sway side to side with the beat.
One of the best tracks on the album (though it is hard to pick just one) is undoubtedly “Iron,” which begins with blaring brass instruments, hailing the reign of a new king– long live Woodkid.
From there, it soldiers forth with percussion, organs and vocals, building up a full scale march on your senses.
There’s a gigantic feeling behind it, like the conquering of titans behind every bar. It’s not like anything you might hear in music today, for all the right reasons.
The thing is, this carries on for the entire album. It’s seamless, with the stories and tales ever changing, but constantly present, kind of like history itself.
If you’re sick of pop music, tired of trite indie folk rock and looking for a soundtrack to give your New Year panache, I recommend giving this album a listen. Immediately.
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