I really should not like "Like Drawing Blood". The bedroom-electronica genre is renowned for turning out piles of dross, and Gotye, aka Wally de Backer has embraced the genre wholeheartedly, opting for the sort of lo-fi production and clichéd cheesy samples that should make this album either a stinker or a bore. Before I'd even heard the album, and just from listening to it, I was all ready to condemn this album as yet another pile of Triple-J overhyped local rubbish.

Yet, despite all of the cards being stacked against him, he's actually created an album who's appeal crosses genre borders and works as an easy-listening pop album just as well as it works as an electronic record. This is in no small part thanks to single-ready tracks like Learnalilgivinanlovin, which manage to recycle daggy musical trends from decades ago without actually making them sound kitschy or gimmicky.

The aforementioned track, which, if you're lucky enough to live in Australia, you've probably heard on Triple J, for instance, drags elements of disco, 70s funk, and other genres lost to the mists of time and mixes them into a trippy, laid-back tune that could easily have fit into any of its source genres back in the day. One only imagines how much time de Backer actually had to spend digging through discount store record bins to find all of the source material just for this one song.

Gotye isn't just a one-trick show though, tracks like The Only Way, which features a manic bassline with at least one suburban thrift shop's worth of bizarre trebly effects cut into it. Heart's A Mess proves that he can also slow things down, creating atmosphere with a sparse, cavernous track built around a short, staccato, string melody.

Overall though, considering the way it was put together, "Like Drawing Blood" is a stunning effort. Looking at the blood-stained cover art, one might expect some sort of darkcore music, but that's not what this is at all, even in its slower moments, things are upbeat, chilled out, and generally cheery. The hype might lead one to believe this is some sort of unholy fusion between The Avalanches and Franz Ferdinand, but that's not true either - apart from the cheesy source material, the attitudes and vibes are entirely different. Gotye is its own form of classy ambient electronica, and it's a form I wouldn't mind hearing some more of.