90s Music

Album: The Golden Echo (2014)
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Songfacts®:

  • The first single to be released from The Golden Echo, the song finds Kimbra exclaiming on the chorus, "Everyday be listening to 90s music!"

    "It talks about sharing music as a kid and falling in love to a soundtrack of TLC, Mariah, Nirvana, and Michael Jackson, then slowly growing up and away from that period of time," Kimbra explained. "There is an undertone of yearning for a return to that place, but it's also about an acceptance of time passing and that although things have changed, the music and the memories live on."

    "Nostalgia is a common theme for me," she added. "I have a strong connection to my teenage years so I wanted to capture that boisterous playful energy with this song."
  • This features a vocal contribution and synths from Foster The People's Mark Foster as well as guitar work from Muse's Matt Bellamy.
  • Kimbra told Radio.com that she chose this track as the first single off her The Golden Echo album, as it sets up the record as one that's not necessarily going to follow all the rules. "I wanted to introduce the idea of playfulness," she explained. "I think of it as a statement song."
  • The album is named after a daffodil called the Narcissus Golden Echo that reflects up to the sun. Kimbra explained to Consequence of Sound: "It says in the Greek myth of Narcissus that he is looking at a reflection of himself in the water, and he eventually dies and so does the yellow flower. And so, of course, that took me to the Greek myth of Narcissus, and that is a theme that shows up not only on the album cover but also throughout the record."

    "To me, it represents these two energies that show up on the album. Of course, Narcissus is that part of us that is very self-focused. But The Golden Echo also represents the part of us that is tuned into the whole and listens very deeply and calls outward — out to something higher or out to be connected again to mature itself. That's the album arc, and it goes between those two worlds. We're so caught up in ourselves that we often don't take the time to listen deeper. The Golden Echo summed that up for me."
  • Kimbra previously collaborated with Mark Foster on the Vows bonus track "Warrior," which was originally recorded for the Converse "Three Artists, One Song" series. Released as a single, it peaked at #22 on the official New Zealand singles chart.
  • MJ & Mariah
    Nirvana & Aaliyah
    R. Kelly & Mary Blige
    TLC & Left Eye


    Asked during a Reddit AMA why she chose to say "TLC, Left Eye" as separate artists, Kimbra replied: "Haha cos it flowed better!!! And she was my fav from TLC. Wanted her to have a special shout out."

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