State of the Art, by Gotye

Making Mirrors, Gotye

This song is something of a love song about an organ--the Cotillian Model D-575, a favourite of the artist. The lyrics could have been read straight from the back of the instruction manual, and the song uses a lot of sounds from the instrument.

What interests me about this song is the way it sort of recontextualizes commercial content to produce an original and interesting song. The song is full of samples of (what I assume to be) old commercials for the aforementioned organ. The title and chorus of the song is interesting, in that while Gotye is repeating "state of the art" over and over, you're fully aware that this organ is no longer state of the art, which summons thoughts of the endless cycle of having to have whatever the latest thing is.

In terms of sounds, it makes use of a lot of interesting sounds that make this song fun to listen to, although maybe not exactly a club banger.