matthew is this guy, and he has this show. He used to live in
\nTexas, now he lives in New York, where he’s disappointed that
\npeople don’t all dress like ’40s film noir. (Hey, man, so am I. I
\nwish I could afford to dress like Bogie.) He’s a singer and
\nsongwriter, and after ten years of bar band purgatory he decided
\nthat “all I ever wanted to do was make an album I liked”. If this
\nsounds like it has some potential for being interesting, then
\ncongratulations; you have successfully thrown off another level of
\nmass-market EmptyVee mind control and are ready to take a trip to
\nTexas<\/i>.<\/p>\n
From the moment I opened up the envelope, I admit to having been
\nintrigued by
\nTexas<\/i>, despite the slightly pithy prose on the back of the
\nCD. It never quite made it into the Pierce Memorial Archives South
\nAnnex, and instead stayed near my stereo — where it got played.
\nFor all his slightly off-kilter persona, the matthew show is pretty
\ndamn talented, and
\nTexas<\/i> is a really enjoyable album of guitar-oriented
\nfolk\/pop.<\/p>\n
The production is excellent, especially for an indie release;
\nthe matthew show is really fond of strumming guitars so that you
\ncan hear the strings chime and buzz, and I confess to being a
\nsucker for being able to hear that on a CD. matthew’s voice is
\nclear, elegant, and expressive; he has a rich, simple intonation
\nand phrasing perfect for the kind of lyric-intensive music he’s
\ndelivering. Best of all, he has a sense of humour — in the midst
\nof these well-crafted songs we have the vitriolic, vicious, and
\ninsanely hilarious “Office Suite” spoken-word pieces documenting in
\nharsh, garish color life as a temp worker. I damn near split a gut
\nlaughing.<\/p>\n
Songs worthy of mention include the beautiful “Bring Me Safely
\nDown”; “Old Enough”, which is one of the best straight-ahead
\nrockers I’ve heard this year; the bluesy “The Roof Is Leaking”, an
\nexcellent cover of the Phil Collins song; and the funny, sad, and
\ncynical “Loneliest Boy In Toyland”. There are very few miscues;
\n“Symbiotic Angel” drags a bit, but that’s a minor quibble.<\/p>\n
\nTexas<\/i> is one of the best independent releases I’ve heard
\nthis year, from a brilliant songwriter who hopefully has a long and
\nstoried career ahead of him. Go out and buy a copy; you’ll do
\nyourself a favor by getting your hands on some excellent music, and
\nmaybe matthew can stop temping and relax a little. The man has
\nissues, people.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":26506,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[6929],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-37743","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-the-matthew-show","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37743","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37743"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37743\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=37743"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=37743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}