You�ve listened to a lot of music, I can tell. I know your kind�people who read music zines, mp3 blogs etc. Music devourers the lot. So you�ll know what I mean when I talk about musical d�j� vu�the feeling that comes when a new song reminds you so eerily of music from your past. It�s a little like the sense-memory that means you�re walking through a hotel and suddenly remember a drunken night out from your teenage years. You may not be able to identify the exact reason, but the feeling is powerful.

I shouldn�t be surprised that this year�s album by Gotye (pronounced like Gaultier) produces this reaction in me. After all, the evil genius behind Like Drawing Blood is around my age, lives in my old hometown and has probably listened to a lot of similar music to me over the years.

Wally De Backer�s little-album-that-could is garnering some impressive notices for its collage of obscure samples and heartfelt and delicate vocals. Eclecticism is the order of the day�soul, AM pop, trip-hop, indie rock, porn-soundtrack funk�but it never devolves into messiness and disorder. In the same way that ten years ago DJ Shadow�s Endtroducing spliced up an entire record store worth of bargain-bin sounds yet felt cohesive, Gotye has created a sound of his own.

Except it all feels so familiar, I�m sure there�s barely a note that hasn�t embedded itself in my subconscious before.

Sometimes the parallel is obvious. �A Distinctive Sound� screams out Wicked Beat Soundsystem or the Avalanches, with its cut �n� paste, dubby quirks. �Heart�s a Mess� is Clue To Kalo, minus some of the glitches and bleeps. Other tracks like �Night Drive,� with its delicate bass harmonics and tender heart, could be any of a dozen songs, but never exactly like any of them. All that really seems familiar is the curious warmth I feel when I hear it.

In the end, it�s not the individual notes and sounds or virtuosity that makes great music truly memorable. It�s the entire package�the �feel� of things, the cover art, what you were doing when you first heard the song, the friend who lent you their favorite album that one time. How can you separate out and isolate the reason why you care?

Gotye has it all, it seems. While I�ve only owned the album for a few months, it feels like a part of me. It�s managed to piggyback on a lifetime of music loving and the soundtrack to a thousand moments�right into the very substance of my life.

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