new matt good
I'm feeling this...MATT IS BACK!
(though I'm sure he'd maintain he never went away...)
posted by YO! at 8:57 AM
Monday, September 28, 2009
I'm feeling this...MATT IS BACK!
(though I'm sure he'd maintain he never went away...)
2 Comments:
I downloaded an advance copy of the album. This song is great, but not really reflective of the whole album, which unfortunately is more Hospital Music than Avalanche.
Mr. Good's solo career has been curiously mixed. The first solo outing, Avalanche, had some of the best material he's ever penned and is easily on par with anything MGB ever produced, but he's been decidedly uneven since then. After Avalanche came the completely forgettable White Light Rock & Roll Review. Hospital Music had a few gems (Born Losers, A Single Explosion) but it is far too personal a record, born of his marriage breakup and subsequent Ativan overdose and hospitalization - so many of the songs are so deeply bitter that the album is almost self-indulgent really, and only becomes less appealing as time goes by. The obligatory live album perhaps suffered from too much material from this album but overall was a solid outing.
This latest album seems another mixed effort. Mr. Good has had a bit of a chip on his shoulder for years about what he perceives to be Vancouver's changes (for the worse) over the last 20 years (which in turn might be an outgrowth of his issues with his ex-wife and people of her ilk - ie the superficial Yaletown crowd). With "The Vancouver National Anthem"'s damning indictment of downtown residents who pay "two even, no parking" for rent, coupled with Good's recent flight to the suburbs after years in a tony Alberni Street condo, it's pretty clear that he's still working out some of his own personal issues through this record.
Some of the best material he's written in years (Last Parade, Volcanoes, Empty's Theme Park) are coupled with more forgettable Hospital Music-esque personal noodlings (Great Whales of the Sea, On Nights Like Tonight, A Silent Army in the Trees). A good album, but not quite a return to the form he showed in Avalanche.
Good review! After listening to the rest of the record a bit more I'd tend to agree.
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