Kimbra - A Reckoning (LP)

Kimbra’s fourth album, A Reckoning, arrived on January 27, 2023, after a five year gap that felt longer than it looks on paper. She has never been a lazy artist, but this one sounds like someone taking real stock of what to keep and what to let go. The title is straight, the songs are tighter, and the production leans into stark textures that frame her voice with unusual clarity. She built it with Ryan Lott from Son Lux, and you can hear his fingerprints in the way strings creep in at odd angles, or how a single synth tone can hang in the air like a question. It is still very much a Kimbra record, full of restless ideas and rhythmic feints, but the palette is more cinematic, less sugar rush.

“Save Me” set the tone ahead of release, a slow burn that starts almost skeletal and grows into something bruised and devotional. The vocal layering is classic Kimbra, stacked harmonies that feel both intimate and a little haunted, and the chorus lands without fireworks, just a quiet plea that sticks. Then “Replay!” flips the script, twitchy and percussive, like she fed a pop hook through a funhouse mirror and kept the parts that made her smirk. That tension, vulnerability pressed up against nervy playfulness, runs through the album. Kimbra has always been a shape shifter, but here the shifts serve the story rather than the other way around.

A Reckoning deals in aftermath and agency, and it does so without turning into a diary dump. The writing is precise, more plainspoken than some of her past work, which gives the performances extra bite. You hear it in the way a line will land a half step earlier than expected, or how a drum pattern will pull back when you anticipate a drop. Lott is a smart partner for this kind of thing, since Son Lux thrives on tension and release, and he lets the songs breathe. The orchestral touches feel organic, more chamber room than glossy string pad, and they give the record a human pulse even when the beats are chopped and syncopated.

“Foolish Thinking” is the heartbreaker, all quiet confessions and small details, and Ryan Lott joins her on the mic like a conscience answering back. It is not a big duet, just two voices tracing the same regret from different angles, which suits the album’s mood. There is catharsis here, but it arrives in small victories, the kind you win alone in your kitchen. Elsewhere, Kimbra leans into abrasion, letting drums bite and basslines wobble, then slides in a melody that won’t quit. She is a two time Grammy winner from the Gotye era, but the path she has carved since then is more interesting, less concerned with radio sheen and more with how a song actually feels in the gut.

If you are the type who files artists together because of shared collaborators, you will hear kinship with Son Lux’s Everything Everywhere All at Once soundtrack, not in theme but in the way both records treat texture as storytelling. Kimbra was already good at this on The Golden Echo and Primal Heart, but A Reckoning sharpens the focus. It is also a front to back listen, the kind of sequence that rewards staying put for 40 minutes, lights low, phone face down. When the final notes fade, you do not feel lectured. You feel like someone told you the truth and trusted you to sit with it.

For the crate diggers, A Reckoning vinyl is worth the space on your shelf, especially if you like hearing real dynamic range and those string swells bloom out of silence. If you are hunting Kimbra albums on vinyl at a Melbourne record store, you might find this sitting next to Vows, and it plays like a grown up cousin to that debut, cooler head, warmer heart. And if you prefer to buy Kimbra records online, this is the one to reach for if you want the most complete picture of where she is now. Kimbra vinyl tends to disappear fast in Australia and New Zealand, so keep an eye on your usual shops that specialize in vinyl records Australia wide. However you get it, the album rewards time, and it rewards volume, which feels like the right way to honor a set of songs that wrestle with consequence and compassion, then leave room for light to get in.