This is about a week late, but I wrote an article for Forces of Geek about Wally de Backer, better known as Gotye. This is the third time I’ve written one of these articles and actually come out of it liking the artist more, even though Backer’s early solo stuff isn’t my thing.

My heart aches for the young girl who, having survived her sophomore-year breakup only by listening to “Somebody That I Used To Know” on repeat for a week straight, picks up the first two Gotye albums. Starting up Boardface, she expects to hear the soothing voice of Backer over strange yet melodic music. Instead she is greeted with ominous strings, dusty samples, trip-hop beats and distorted vocals. Confused and agitated, she shuts off the record, rips her Gotye poster off the wall and swears to never again fall victim to the charms of an Australian singer-songwriter.

This and other flights of fancy can be found in the article! Read it, if only just so you have another chance to watch that awesome orchestra of “Somebody That I Used To Know” covers. I could have written an entire article about how much I love that thing, and how it uses new media to demonstrate the huge response this song has gotten. It’s a unique and wonderful expression of the world-wide, communal love people have for this song, and world-wide, communal experiences are one of pop music’s greatest functions… at least, that’s how I see it.