Review: The Golden Age by Woodkid

THE GOLDEN AGE, BY WOODKID - TRACK BY TRACK REVIEW

by Anna Júlia Chafer

Technical Details:

Year: 2013

Genre: Neofolk, indie

Length: 48:34 minutes

Country: France

The Golden Age is Yoann Lemoine’s, aka Woodkid, debut album, after reaching success in his career as a film and music video director (for instance, Katy Perry’s “Teenage Dream” or Lana Del Rey’s “Born to Die” are directed by him) and graphic designer. The french released this neofolk record in 2013, and it is truly worthy of an indie film inspired by the lyrics or something, even more if we consider Lemoine’s statements about it being “autobiographical”.

The CD opens with the song that names it, The Golden Age, and a quiet, soft piano arrangement. Woodkid’s voice follows it quickly, with a cracky, faint but gentle melody that accompanies us the listeners through the strings that add layers and layers of sound to the piano. The song reaches its climax with the brass add-ons, followed by a powerful army of drums, which set the bar high for the next songs.

Nonetheless, what comes next is no less than Run Boy Run, the most well-known theme of the album by now, mostly because of its appearance in lots of adverts and trailers, as well as the soundtracks of the movies Divergent and The Maze Runner. By now we all should be able to recognise the characteristic drumming pace and strings that have made this song a modern-age epic indie anthem (did I just wrote all that? Like, whoa. “Modern-age epic indie anthem” could be the title of a book or a song or whatever).

It’s hard to beat what could be probably the best song in the album, so even though The Great Escape, the following song, has a great beat and different arrangements (note the bell-kinda-thing here and there, which appears later in other songs), it feels boring and for sure not one of the best. In another place in the album, after a quieter song maybe, it would have been better, but after Run Boy Run, it feels like a failed try to recreate another hit like the previous theme.

Anyway, Boat Song fixes things a bit with its sweet, gentle pace and the piano’s organ-like sound, making us feel we really are in a little boat with the singer, who whispers to our ears. There are trumpets too, but they don’t want to sound epic as in many other songs, just soft instead. The resulting surround sound is a comfortable, cozy atmosphere to wrap one of the very, very few songs with completely positive lyrics.

I Love You, the following one, was one of the singles and it’s no wonder. The bells in this song are definitely better than in The Great Escape, the melody gives us an accurate feeling about the lyrics, which are bittersweet and even off bounds close to the sadness. A brilliant composition that doesn’t linger in melancholic sounds like lots of songs about heartbreak.

The Shore could pass as another Boat Song, but its different traits give it a characteristic touch, such as the strings that don’t give us that feeling of floating but instead of flying above fields and cities, because they hold the notes for a while. Those strings are nearly the best in the album, competing with Run Boy Run’s, and are clearly the strong point of the song. The pace, nevertheless, is similar to Boat Song so it’s easy to do the comparison between them. Which one wins, this is left to your taste. I love them both.

We are introduced to another kind of sounds in Ghost Lights, just as if the album built more and more layers for every song we get to hear. The brass arrangements are in this case totally magnificant, and the drums set for a running pace. The filmic character of the theme is even more emphasized with the change of key at the end of the song. Since Woodkid always works with melodies which sound mostly bittersweet, we can’t really tell if this is a heroic song or a failing anthem, and the lyrics don’t help neither; yes, the chorus is essentially a will to triumph, but the verses don’t seem so. I think this is one of the most interesting things about Woodkid, a trait that makes him stand out whether you like his music or not.

Shadows is one of my favorites, and not because I don’t like Lemoine’s voice (for the record, I love his voice because it’s really special and different)! It’s my favorite instrumental theme in the whole album, and I like it because it’s not like the million orchestral instrumentals, and has a kinda-sinister thing that I’m 90% sure isn’t an accordion, but sounds like an accordion. Its structure is simple, just like its melody, but it’s a short song so it doesn’t feel repetitive. And it would be greeeeeeeatt in a movie soundtrack!

Next we have Stabat Mater, a totally sinister theme that complements really well the previous one. I don’t like the absence of a chorus, instead replaced by a choir, but there are powerful parts and even though the song adds new sounds and layers, it’s a bit too risky and it all ends in a just passable theme, with no special things to stand out.

With Conquest Of Spaces we reach another of the best songs in the album, and complete a quiet transition from the classical orchestral sound to an uncommon but utterly awesome one, which is kind of a mix between the soundtrack of a movie and Muse’s arena rock anthems. To abridge, in the previous songs (especially in the three that go before this one) Woodkid has been introducing more and more electronic sounds, synthesizers and artificial elements, and Conquest Of Spaces sums it up very, very well. The culmination of Woodkid’s personal style reaches a peak in this theme, shows his master skills when changing keys throughout the song, and creates the epitome of his distinctive powerful drums, his subtle but intense voice, and his poetic lyrics. Conquest Of Spaces feels like a space journey, and its lyrics are perfect and splendid. Yes, Run Boy Run is an epic song and The Golden Age too, but this one is a gem too many times overlooked.

Falling, the other instrumental in the album, feels (and I guess it was thought too) as an interlude. There’s barely melody, just ominous strings that gain strength as the forty seconds of the track pass by.

We’re reaching the end of the album, with only three songs left, and Where I Live is like a pretty tune to settle down after all those grand, ambitious tracks. The arrangements are simpler, and the song has a touch of sadness, but I’d say it’s still better than, for example, The Great Escape. It doesn’t aim for much and it’s better, because it achieves an intense feeling -this time accentuated by Woodkid’s voice, that gets pretty emotional here- without need of any complicated melodies.

Iron. The last-but-one. I have to say that leaving this one for the end was a truly great decision, instead of piling all the big themes before the rest, and this strategic decision is crucial because when you finish with the album, it leaves you with a good impression -even though the sensation is diminished due to the last song-. This is a song that has also been featured in various videos and trailers, including a Teen Wolf chapter and an Assassin’s Creed trailer, so go figure. Another great use of the bell-like sounds, the horns and trumpets and that bold, bittersweet sound Woodkid is really familiar with. A standout song overall.

The Other Side would have fitted more around the beginning of the album, in my opinion, mostly because of its military-styled drums, and it seems a filler especially having in mind that we have just listened to one of the four best songs in the album, and it’s not enough to leave us with a great feeling when the album closes; it even feels like the song tries to steal a bit of Iron’s greatness. I mean, it’s not a bad song, but it’s definitely not a great option to close The Golden Age. I would cut it at Iron and stop there.

My personal favorites are The Golden Age, Run Boy Run, I Love You, Shadows, Conquest of Spaces and Iron, but this is an album to be enjoyed with time, and every song has its quirks and traits, so in a few months it could change.

The whole album is beautifully composed -even though there are songs that may feel repetitive- in a special way so it has a feeling of completeness, of depth and dimension, a different style that makes this record be distinguishable of others.

For a debut album, The Golden Age is a memorable record: Woodkid’s first LP is bold, impressing and solid, with a few flaws but still easily enjoyable, especially by those in the indie music scene.