Not this again: “The eye behind such films as No Country for Old Men and The Assassination of Jesse James , [Roger] Deakins takes Bond into the digital age . Mendes promises his darker tone will bleed directly over to the physical look of the movie. ‘I’ve worked with Roger twice [on Jarhead and Revolutionary Road ], so I feel very comfortable in that relationship. There’s a shorthand. You look at each other and know what you’re thinking. He’s a true artist. Right from the start of directing, I realized the most important two relationships were with my leading actors and the director of photography. You’ll see in the teaser trailer that it has a very distinct look that does have elements of noir and British ’60s. It’s very English — a lot is set in England.'” [ Hollywood.com ]
It has been years in the making. It is epic in scope. It contains elements beloved by millions. “It” is the marketing campaign for the hotly anticipated superhero gathering The Avengers , and as promotional surges go, those are high standards to maintain. Hence the $100 million worth of international promotional partnerships formed by Marvel and Disney — although, with such a global presence, it seems natural that a few of their marketing and merchandising moves would make less impact than Mjölnir . Behold the weirdest of what you may find touting the the comic-book blockbuster in the United States and beyond. Breaking the mold from conventional products — and conventional fanboys — is this customized collector’s desk, created by Tom Spina Designs . Made for a dedicated fan with a collection of screen props, this desk features items gathered from Captain America, Iron Man and all of their Avengers peers. This calls to mind another high end piece of furniture based on the franchise… Studio Dror created a S.H.I.E.L.D desk in conjunction with movie partner Acura. The spartan surface hides a number of compartment, hidden speakers and an iPod dock. The overall appearance calls to mind a possible scene where the members of the team turn to Thor’s Nordic experience to help them decipher the arcane instructions to an IKEA design. Meanwhile, though the snake-oil element of power/balance bracelets has largely been exposed here in the U.S., it looks as if Japan still clings to the supposed benefits of these adornments. Fashioned after Tony Stark’s suit-summoning device seen on screen, the firm Colantotte offers its Limited Edition Avengers Magtitan Neo Legend bracelet in titanium, stainless steel, and carbon fiber: It uses the power of magnets to — uh, well, help you out. Plus it is versatile: “Perfect both for Avengers thwarting arch enemies at the top of their game, or for everyday casual/business use.” The bling’s benefits sound impressive: They are axially magnetized in their trademarked “alternating north-south polarity orientation” (ANSPO) — which basically means the manufacturer took one of the magnets and flipped it over. Occasionally a major release will provoke a company to come out with a signature fragrance linked to either the film or a character. Well, credit the masterminds at JADS International with recognizing the immense scope of this film via seven fragrances based on Avengers players , including Nick Fury AND Loki: Close your eyes for moment and picture the behemoth that is the Hulk, veins coursing with secretions as he is covered in a sheen of perspiration. So what do you imagine he smells like? Nope, you’re wrong. According to the company, his fragrance is one of “Yuzu, bergamot and tarragon which create clean, clear top notes along with unexpected accords of water lily and nutmeg. SMASH! then carries an intense woody drydown enriched with Indian sandalwood, vetiver, musk and sharp cedar.” Tony Stark also gets his unique Mark VII aroma combining “mandarin, neroli, nasturtium and jasmine layered with light patchouli.” I’d say they got that one wrong. Actually I was expecting a light expression of pneumatic fluid mixed with fumes from 12 year old scotch, and just a whiff of shame. Fast-food tie-ins with comic book franchises are nothing new. However, one growing trend is the major studio release with tie-ins that are perfectly suited for American audiences yet unavailable Stateside. One such example is the Philippine chicken franchise Jollibee. For The Avengers , Jollibee not only offer up themed, reusable chicken buckets for their larger orders, but you can also purchase an additional item related to the film. Knowing the obsessives who collect Slurpee straws with characters on them, I presume many would clamor for these heat-reactive cups with hidden movie graphics. Just a couple of dollars in stores these will probably be fetching near $20 (after shipping, natch) on eBay very soon. Comic book films generate copious toy franchising opportunities, even when they make no sense. Slapping the image of characters on anything from playground balls to flashlights generates sales. The Avengers has even lured one company into being the exclusive slot-car producer for the film. But one product that truly defies logic is the Hulk diving mask: Is it really considered a clever move to obscure your child’s vision while underwater, all in the name of “resembling” his or her favorite gargantuan green Avenger? Anyway, the tie-in heft of a summer blockbuster with luncheon meat is obvious. I say this because it continuously occurs, even as you or I fail to see the connection. The Land-O-Frost company once again has joined a major studio in promoting its title by placing stickers on meat packs and staging a contest for customers. You, too, can feel a kinship with supernaturally gifted heroes by eating machine-stripped, processed and mechanically extruded ham loaf. Europe also has realized the cold-cut windfall to be had, with the Italian company Montana Foods following suit. Heroic baloney in Bologna — who’d have guessed? As we all know by now, Disney owns Marvel, and therefore the studio is able to platform its marketing with other company assets. Some can make sense, like covering the iconic monorails at Disney theme parks in graphics for the movie. But just because you can synergize doesn’t mean you should synergize. To wit, Disney also owns the ABC network. Therefore it was decided by somebody with a John Carter -like vision to stage a scene of the dwindling soap opera General Hospital with characters standing in front of an ersatz movie theater , discussing deep emotional plot points in front of banners for Avengers . I’m betting some marketing suit was brought into a board room and schooled loudly on some of the basics of Demographics-101. It would take a James Franco stunt-cameo to get tickets sold from that aged audience. Brad Slager has written about movies and entertainment for Film Threat, Mediaite, and is a columnist at CHUD.com . His less insightful impressions on entertainment can be found on Twitter .
The Avengers is less a movie than a novelization of itself, an oversized, self-aware picture designed mostly for effect: That of reliving the experience of a movie you’ve seen before and just can’t get enough of. The picture is broken down into narrative chunks that ultimately don’t tell much of a story – what you get instead is a series of mini-climaxes held together by banter between characters. The idea, maybe, is that people already love Captain America, Iron Man, the Hulk and Thor so much — like, so, so much — that all a filmmaker really needs to do is put them all into a big stock pot filled with elaborate set pieces and some knowing dialogue and he’s golden. And maybe, given the heightened-lowered expectations of movie audiences, that really is all he has to do: It’s possible to have looked forward to a movie all year, to enjoy watching it, and then to have completely forgotten about it the following week. The Avengers isn’t terrible. It has a welcoming, communal spirit, especially for a big-budget, early-summer picture. But its director, Joss Whedon — who also cowrote the script, with Zak Penn, based on the characters created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby — seems to have gotten lost in mythology on his way to the story. It’s odd that last year, the arrival (and popularity) of The Artist and Midnight in Paris elicited dozens of cranky essays — or at least Tweets — about how lame it was that these movies traded in “nostalgia,” a sentimental longing for an old-timey world of bowler hats and flapper dresses (or, at least, moviemaking with less green screen). But movies built around comic books never get the same treatment, even though they wouldn’t exist if not for a past kept in boxes under countless beds, a past that you get really mad at your mother for throwing out. We have to carry some of the past along with us. How else do you shape the future? But The Avengers isn’t so much a movie as a kind of G-8 summit for action figures who have finally been allowed out of their cellophane boxes. They do action stuff, then they talk a little, then they do more action stuff. It’s a movie that, for all its dazzle, has forgotten that the whole point of reading comic books is for story and character development. The Avengers certainly doesn’t lack for characters, most of which will be familiar even if you’ve never read a Marvel comic book in your life, provided you’ve been to the movies at least a couple of times in the past few years. As the picture opens, Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury, the godfather of the military law-enforcement outfit known as S.H.I.E.L.D., is just about to put a shiny cube known as the Tesseract away for safe-keeping when out of the sky drops pissed-off alien Viking Loki (played by Tom Hiddleston, who has a fantastic anemic-schoolboy look). Loki possesses a mysterious staff that can steal the hearts of men, even superhuman ones, and he uses this dastardly magical doohickey to take a number of Nick Fury’s employees hostage, among them Jeremy Renner’s Clint Barton, AKA Hawkeye, a bow-and-arrow guy. He also takes possession of the Tesseract, which has the power to destroy worlds and to remove that pesky ring-around-the-collar — seriously, this rock can do anything. Nick needs to get the rock back, and fast, so he summons the most awesome assemblage of superhuman superheroes ever, in the form of Tony Stark, AKA Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Steve Rogers, AKA Captain America (Chris Evans), Bruce Banner, AKA the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) and Natasha Romanoff, AKA Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson). Later, Loki’s linebacker-sized half-brother Thor (the casually appealing Chris Hemsworth, a collegiate, big galoot of a guy) joins the fray, as Hawkeye does once he’s freed from Loki’s spell. It’s not giving too much away to tell you that these guys do recover the Tesseract, because luckily, someone has had the foresight to build a reversible thingie into the thingie — smart thinking! And maybe, when it comes right down to it, The Avengers doesn’t need much in the way of plotting to deliver base-level blockbuster satisfaction: It moves forward, set piece by set piece, in a way that can easily fool you into thinking it’s exciting, or at least not boring. In one sequence, Iron Man and Thor — his mighty hammer looking looking comically, wonderfully tiny in his gigantic hand — duke it out in a forest; Captain America swoops in to intervene, and the three engage in a vaulting, clanging, technically souped-up version of rock-paper-scissors, each trying to outdo the others with his own personal superhero superpowers — they don’t yet realize that their powers complement each other more than they clash. Later, Thor breaks up more shenanigans among the group with a rebuke: “You people are so petty! And so tiny.” He’s got that right. The Avengers suffers from the thing that mars so many movies peopled with outsize characters: Everyone is jostling for our attention, and naturally, some are going to grab more than others. Ruffalo is characteristically understated as Bruce Banner, which makes his transformation into, as Stark puts it, “an enormous green rage monster” quietly satisfying. Renner’s Hawkeye is a little lost — it can’t be easy, being the bow-and-arrow guy. Similarly, even though Johansson’s sultry Natasha gets a smashing opening — she vanquishes a bunch of thugs even as she’s tied to a chair, a magnificent feat of bondage combat — she’s quickly relegated to the superhero back burner. And Downey’s Stark, strutting around in his off-hours in a Black Sabbath T-shirt, is amusing until his self-important wisecracks begin to wear ruts in the movie. One thing The Avengers doesn’t have going for it — which is hardly the movie’s fault — is that it can never be the sneak attack Jon Favreau’s first Iron Man movie was. That picture stands as the best in a wayward series of Avengers movies that include Kenneth Branagh’s crazy-Wagnerian Thor and Joe Johnston’s well-intentioned but wobbly Captain America: The First Avenger . Of all the characters here, Chris Evans’s Captain America best acquits himself, partly because Evans never looks as if he’s trying too hard and partly, maybe, because his character’s suit — an old-fashioned padded red-white-and-blue number, with matching helmet mask — is so old-school that you never lose sight of the superhuman human being inside it. Maybe that’s also why Gwyneth Paltrow, who appears in only a few scenes as Tony Stark’s main squeeze Pepper Potts, is such a blessed vision: She pads around Tony Stark’s space-age Manhattan headquarters in her bare feet, dressed in a white shirt and cutoff shorts, a sexy vision of down-to-earth braininess — she also happens to be coordinating the technology that makes Stark and his Stark Enterprises such a success. But maybe you don’t really need a Pepper Potts when you’ve got a crashing, galloping extended climax in which a portion of New York City is destroyed by massive flying metal beasties before the Avengers can restore order. Whedon does a pretty valiant job of orchestrating set pieces like these. And yet — is that what we really want from Whedon? In my book, Whedon will always be a genius for creating and shaping Buffy the Vampire Slayer — a show that addressed not just the major traumas of teenagerhood but of this goddamned thing we call life — and shepherding it through seven remarkably sustained seasons. The Avengers is far less intimate than Buffy — a show whose proportions reached majestic heights — ever was. And Whedon’s 2005 feature directing debut Serenity , based on his ill-fated but marvelous television series Firefly , offers the kind of satisfying, bare-bones storytelling that’s lacking in The Avengers . (I also think it’s time for Whedon to retire the idea of the hole in the sky that suddenly breaks open, unleashing horrors upon an unsuspecting world, a device that also features in the smug, tricky, meta-horror movie Cabin in the Woods , which Whedon cowrote and produced. He never met a portal he didn’t like.) The Avengers is at its best when Whedon takes the time to shape small moments between the characters, as when tight-ass Agent Phil Coulson (played by the likeably noodgy Clark Gregg) goes all stammering and tongue-tied in the presence of Captain America, his childhood idol. Coulson’s awkward hero worship is a gentle metaphor for The Avengers ’ whole reason for existence — these are characters people love, for understandable reasons. But the movie’s scale and size does little to serve those characters, and there’s something self-congratulatory about Whedon’s whole approach, as if he were making a movie only for people who are already in on the in-joke. Comic-book aficionados who have always loved the Avengers may very well love The Avengers ; those who wouldn’t know a Tesseract from a Rubik’s Cube may feel differently. That’s the thing about other people’s nostalgia: It’s always a bitch. Follow Stephanie Zacharek on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
Superhero movie, due Stateside in early May, is already breaking records in foreign markets. By Kevin P. Sullivan Chris Evans as Captain America In “The Avengers” Photo: Walt Disney Studios The Avengers have already started to assemble overseas, and early box-office reports are spelling very good things for Marvel’s tentpole. The superhero movie that brings together Captain America, Iron Man, Thor and the Hulk has reportedly made $12.5 million in a handful of foreign markets and is already breaking records, according to The Hollywood Reporter. In Australia, ” The Avengers ” has already banked $7 million, a total that has only been beaten by ” Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2 ,” which earned $8 million during its Down Under debut. The foreign rollout has proven lucrative elsewhere, too, as France added $3 million to the total. Early tracking estimated that “The Avengers” could make more than $150 million during its early May opening weekend in the U.S. That would put the film in the same class as “Spider-Man 3,” “The Hunger Games,” “The Dark Knight” and “Deathly Hallows, Part 2.” This could potentially mean the biggest debut for a Marvel Studios movie yet. ” Iron Man 2 ” currently holds that honor. The Robert Downey Jr. sequel opened to $128 million back in 2010. That’s followed by the first ” Iron Man ” at $98 million. “The Avengers” has the added advantage of higher ticket prices. The film is playing both in 3-D and in IMAX 3-D, so each individual ticket will add more to the final total. “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2” saw a large bump in its record-breaking run thanks in part to higher prices attached to 3-D showings. Check out everything we’ve got on “The Avengers.” For breaking news and previews of the latest comic book movies — updated around the clock — visit SplashPage.MTV.com . Related Videos Talk Nerdy Assemble Yourself For ‘Avengers’ Sneak Peeks
Director also opens up on ‘Beetlejuice’ sequel and whether he’d return to ‘Batman.’ By John Mitchell, with reporting by Josh Horowitz Johnny Depp in “Dark Shadows” Photo: Warner Bros Fans of the classic late-’60s soap “Dark Shadows” were surprised when the trailer for the film made it seem like director Tim Burton had reimagined his subject matter as a farcical comedy rather than the dark, Gothic soap opera fans remembered. Since then, there have been whispers that the film is far darker than it is being marketed, so we went straight to the source to find out what is really up with the buzzed-about film. At CinemaCon 2012, MTV News asked Burton if he felt the trailer is reflective of his film, which hits theaters May 11, and while he admits there are humorous elements to the film, he said he doesn’t believe it can be classified as a comedy. “Everything that’s in [the trailer] is in the movie,” Burton told MTV News. “It’s a funny film for me, because I never considered it a comedy. I was always trying to capture the weird vibe of ‘Dark Shadows,’ which is a weird thing to try to capture. It was a weird daytime soap opera.” Burton, a longtime “Shadows” fan who said he “recalls the show affectionately,” said that whatever humor is in the film is there because the situation Barnabas is in when he is unearthed 200 years after being buried is innately humorous. “It’s not like I’m being campy with it or anything,” Burton said. “The guy’s been locked in a box for 200 years, and [when] he comes out … something weird is going to happen.” As for comparisons to his previous films, most notably “Edward Scissorhands,” Burton said he can see the link, but confessed that there are many subtle differences between Barnabas Collins and any other character he’s put onscreen. “Edward Scissorhands was more of a naive character. Barnabas has been around the block a few times,” Burton told MTV News with a laugh. “There is something about a character who doesn’t quite fit into the world, which is similar, just in this case, he’s been around a long time.” Burton also gave us up-to-date news on one project many of his biggest fans are very excited for: “Beetlejuice 2.” The film is being written by “Shadows” scribe Seth Grahame-Smith, and for Burton, that’s as far as things have gotten. “He’s working away on it,” the director said of Grahame-Smith, “so I’m just waiting to see what he does.” As for whether we can expect him to make a return to “Batman,” the film franchise he started with the original 1989 blockbuster, he was straight to the point, saying, “I think I have enough on my plate.” Check out everything we’ve got on “Dark Shadows.” For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com . Related Videos MTV Rough Cut: CinemaCon 2012 Related Photos Five Key Scenes From The ‘Dark Shadows’ Trailer
Talk Nerdy weighs in on the most anticipated movies of summer 2012, from Batman’s last voyage to Earth’s mightiest superhero showdown. By Josh Wigler Chris Evans as Captain America In “The Avengers” Photo: Walt Disney Studios “The Avengers” is just one week away. You know what that means: Aside from being the big payoff for years and years and years of waiting on the part of Marvel Comics fans, “Avengers” is also the opening act in what’s sure to be one of the biggest summer movie seasons in quite some time. Batman, Spider-Man, Agent J and more are back in theaters after far too long a wait, while others — David 8 , Roadblock , Alex Hopper — are showing up for the first time. It’s a crowded landscape to be sure; you’ll want to spend your hard-earned theatergoing cash wisely if you want to weed out the fantastic, can’t-miss movies from the fugly, must -miss ones. That’s why the nerds at MTV News used this week’s edition of Talk Nerdy to guide you through the upcoming blockbuster months with which movies you need to see, which ones you can skip, and which ones shouldn’t slip under your radar. Do Not Miss
Talk Nerdy weighs in on the most anticipated movies of summer 2012, from Batman’s last voyage to Earth’s mightiest superhero showdown. By Josh Wigler Chris Evans as Captain America In “The Avengers” Photo: Walt Disney Studios “The Avengers” is just one week away. You know what that means: Aside from being the big payoff for years and years and years of waiting on the part of Marvel Comics fans, “Avengers” is also the opening act in what’s sure to be one of the biggest summer movie seasons in quite some time. Batman, Spider-Man, Agent J and more are back in theaters after far too long a wait, while others — David 8 , Roadblock , Alex Hopper — are showing up for the first time. It’s a crowded landscape to be sure; you’ll want to spend your hard-earned theatergoing cash wisely if you want to weed out the fantastic, can’t-miss movies from the fugly, must -miss ones. That’s why the nerds at MTV News used this week’s edition of Talk Nerdy to guide you through the upcoming blockbuster months with which movies you need to see, which ones you can skip, and which ones shouldn’t slip under your radar. Do Not Miss
‘I wanted to pick a wild name,’ N.O.R.E. tells Mixtape Daily of his new Crack on Steroids tape. By Rob Markman, with reporting by Adam Murphy N.O.R.E. Photo: MTV News Main Pick Headliners : N.O.R.E. and DJ Green Lantern Representing : Queens, New York Mixtape : Crack on Steroids Real Spit : The Super Thug is back at it again. Almost a year after dropping his N.O.R.E.aster EP, Noreaga returns with the drug-induced Crack on Steroids. “I wanted to pick a wild name so when people look at it, they’ll say, ‘What the hell is that?’ ” N.O.R.E. told Mixtape Daily about his latest release. Picking up where he left off last year with his street single “Nore Shot Somebody,” the C-N-N rapper keeps things “Grimey” on the tape-opening “Kenny Powers.” It’s not exactly an ode to the popular HBO comedy ; instead, N.O. uses Danny McBride’s fictional character as a thinly veiled reference to his distinct brand of cocaine. While partner-in-rhyme Capone was locked up in the late 1990s, N.O.R.E. proved he could hold things down as a soloist, crafting a number of hits like “Super Thug” and “Grimey.” On C.O.S., however, the Queens, New York, MC invites a number of his rap friends to the party. RZA shows up for “Hare Krishna” and Game, Busta Rhymes and Waka Flocka Flame pitch in on the Chris Brown-sampling “Lehhhgooo.” On the latter, producer Charli Brown flips Breezy’s opening ad lib from “Look at Me Now” and turns it into a catchy chorus. Wale also jumps on “Get Her” and will.i.am channels Slick Rick on “We Ain’t,” then Nore’s latest signee, Glacierz, proves she can hang with the fellas and delivers a standout verse on “War Song.” For all his guest spots, though, N.O.R.E. maintains his vibe throughout the tape — not that we expected anything less. Joints to Check For
‘Her story is among my favorites, because she’s not a hero,’ he says of Scarlett Johansson’s character for Summer Movie Preview Week. By Kara Warner Captain America in “Avengers” Photo: Walt Disney Studios One of the most intriguing aspects about the very highly anticipated and superhero-studded “Marvel’s The Avengers” is in wondering how much the audience will see of each individual character, as well as what the actor in question has brought to the table in portraying a new side of their respective Marvel hero in the massive film. When MTV News caught up with mastermind and director Joss Whedon recently, we asked him if any of his castmembers brought something extra to the film via their pre-production knowledge or ideas about their storied characters. “They’re all very serious, dedicated people,” Whedon said with pride. “Scarlett [Johansson] knew more about the Black Widow than I did; that was a bit of a surprise. She claims that it was all from Wikipedia, though.” Whedon said Johansson’s character arc is one of his favorites in the film, because it’s so much different from that of the other bona fide superheroes like Captain America and Iron Man. “Her story is among my favorites, because she’s not a hero. She doesn’t live in a hero’s world; she lives in a very noir/duplicitous world of being a spy, and there’s a darkness to her and her past,” he explained. “There’s also a real beauty to her relationship with Clint Barton [a.k.a. Hawkeye] that, for me, is as exciting as anything in the movie, really.” For her part, Johansson joked with us recently at the film’s premiere that because Widow isn’t a superhero, she’s happy she survived the action-packed shoot. “We all took a pretty big beating,” she said. “I would have to say either [Black] Widow or Hawkeye [get their butts kicked hardest]. We’re on the ground, so we’re fighting hand-to-hand and it hurts.” She also teased a pretty epic fight sequence with another character she couldn’t name. “All I can say is that I had to fight someone else in this film, and they beat the crap out of me in stunt rehearsals. I have to say I could not believe it,” she recalled. “I was like, ‘Can you hold it back, OK? You know, I’m trying to work it out here. I’ve got smaller muscles than you,’ ” Johansson said. “I was dragged across the [floor]. When we finally finished [filming] that scene I was just happy to be alive.” It’s Summer Movie Preview Week, and MTV News will be bringing you exclusive interviews, clips and photos for the most anticipated summer movies . Get ready to gorge on inside looks at “The Avengers,” Robert Pattinson’s “Bel Ami,” Kristen Stewart’s “Snow White,” “The Amazing Spider-Man” and more! Related Videos Summer Movie Preview 2012 Related Photos Get Psyched For Summer Movie Flicks 2012!
‘I don’t think either of us could have predicted the success of the song,’ she tells MTV News. By Jocelyn Vena Kimbra Photo: MTV News When Gotye dropped “Somebody That I Used to Know,” neither he nor his collaborator on the sad breakup track, Kimbra , had any idea how the song would resonate with fans. When Kimbra stopped by MTV News last Friday, she told us she never imagined hearing the song on primetime TV shows and seeing it on the charts. The single (off Gotye’s 2011 album, Making Mirrors ) was covered by Matt Bomer and Darren Criss on “Glee,” and contestants on both “The Voice” and “American Idol” pinned their music industry dreams on the track. “I don’t think either of us could have predicted the success of the song,” she said of Gotye (a.k.a. Wally De Backer). “Used to Know” topped several Billboard charts, including the Alternative and Rock Songs lists, and peaked at #2 on the all-important Hot 100. And over the weekend, the duo performed the track on “Saturday Night Live.” “I knew it would resonate with people when I heard it,” Kimbra said. “Wally has a really great way of penetrating an emotion. But, you know … ‘Glee’ and ‘The Voice’ and all of these crazy pieces of exposure … that was really out of our imagination.” What makes the song stand out on pop radio, which is driven these days by dance loops and producers like Dr. Luke and Max Martin, is that it’s a mid-tempo ballad that pays homage to the kinds of songs that acts like Peter Gabriel, Phil Collins and the Police pumped out in the ’80s. “I think it’s a really exciting time for pop music right now, to see such a reflective, kind of vulnerable song shoot to the top of the charts, I think it’s paving the way for some really exciting artists to come through,” Kimbra said. “And I hope to be one of them, in terms of putting out my record here in the States. I think Wally’s doing something that’s really progressive for the pop world anyway.” Kimbra’s album, Vows, will be out in the U.S. on May 22. Related Artists Kimbra Gotye
