| Like Drawing Blood | ||||
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 21 May 2006 | |||
| Recorded | 2003–2005 | |||
| Genre | Art pop, indie rock, downtempo, electronica | |||
| Length | 47:50 | |||
| Label | Independent Creative Vibes | |||
| Gotye chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Like Drawing Blood | ||||
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Like Drawing Blood is the second studio album by Belgian-Australian singer-songwriter Gotye, released in Australia on 21 May 2006. All the sounds on the album were collected and assembled or performed by Wally De Backer in bedrooms around Melbourne between 2003 and 2005, and the record was mixed and mastered by François Tétaz (Wolf Creek soundtrack, Machine Translations, Architecture in Helsinki). It was featured heavily by Triple J in May 2006. At the J Award of 2006, the album was nominated for Australian Album of the Year.[1]
Two songs from Like Drawing Blood rated in the Triple J Hottest 100, 2006: "Hearts a Mess" at number 8, and "Learnalilgivinanlovin" at number 94.[2] Like Drawing Blood also received the number one spot on the 2006 Triple J Album Poll for best album of the year, as voted by Triple J listeners.[3]
The album was also released in Belgium, on 30 May 2008, with three alterations: it contains a new version of "Learnalilgivinanlovin" with higher-pitched vocals in the chorus; the track "Coming Back" removes a sample in the intro and bridge, and the song "A Distinctive Sound" is replaced by a new version of "The Only Thing I Know" (the original appeared on Gotye's debut album Boardface). Also, three singles were released in Belgium: "Learnalilgivinanlovin", "Hearts a Mess", and "Coming Back".[4]
Like Drawing Blood has also received the number 11 spot on the 2011 Triple J Hottest 100 Australian Albums of All Time, as voted by the Triple J listeners.
In 2012 it was awarded a double silver certification from the Independent Music Companies Association,[5] which indicated sales of at least 40,000 copies throughout Europe.
The title of the album Like Drawing Blood refers to the difficulty Gotye endured to create it.[6] When asked about the title in a 2008 interview with FaceCulture, Gotye replied: "yeah, it's a little bit Gothic, obviously, than is appropriate for the music that's on the album, it was just— it was a hard album to write for me because almost— heaps of times, at least every month, in the maybe two years that I spent writing the record, I was ready to just kind of go, 'what am I doing, this is no good', or 'it's too hard', or 'I'm never going to, you know, make— finish an album', so it was quite a challenging thing to continue to go, this is worth keeping to doing— you know, keeping going with this; um, so in a way it was kinda like it took so much out of me for two years, kind of off and on, trying to finish the record; it felt a little bit like, yeah, it was kind of like taking the very kind of life energy from me, like drawing blood, um, to put into making this record, um, and it also has a title that went hand-in-hand with the album cover, which has, kind of, what looks like, kind of splatters of blood on a canvas, um, just a painting I did when I was young".[7] In a 2012 interview with FaceCulture, Gotye stated that it "was obviously named after the suggestion that it was a difficult experience, that it was like, you know, taking a part of myself, a lifeblood", explaining that he "didn't really get a lot of time to work on Like Drawing Blood" due to spending time at various jobs trying to make ends meet.[8]
- ^ "The J Award 2006". Triple J. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 2006. Retrieved 15 August 2020.
- ^ Triple J Hottest 100 2006
- ^ 2006 Triple J Album Poll
- ^ "Gotye – Like Drawing Blood" (in Dutch). Ultratop.
- ^ "13/12/12: More Independent Artists Take European Gold, Silver and Platinum Awards Than Ever Before | Impala". www.impalamusic.org. Archived from the original on 9 April 2014.
- ^ Hartley, David (6 May 2024). How the world's biggest song caused Gotye to quit (Video). YouTube. Event occurs at 5m20s–6m0s. Retrieved 10 November 2024.
- ^ FaceCulture (22 September 2008). Gotye interview 2008 - Wouter de Backer (part 4) (Video). YouTube (published 5 February 2012). Event occurs at 0m2s–1m4s. Archived from the original on 11 November 2024. Retrieved 10 November 2024.
- ^ FaceCulture (10 December 2012). Gotye interview (part 3) (Video). YouTube (published 11 December 2012). Event occurs at 2m20s–2m48s. Archived from the original on 11 November 2024. Retrieved 10 November 2024.