Monday Music Review on Sunday? Yes, because Monday comes quickly and I want you to be prepared in the morning when you roll out of bed in need of coffee and a good tune to get you moving. So, for this blog, the Monday Music Review (which may become a regular feature) comes a day early because it’s my party. And that’s the way I want it.
A few weeks ago, I introduced you to Jensen Ackles and I told you he was the eye candy on a few YouTube videos. While surfing around for some of Jensen’s songs I hadn’t yet heard, I happened upon a great song entitled Just You. The video was Jensen’s photos but the comments included a heated discussion about whether Jensen or Matt Nathanson was singing the song. That reminded me that Matt Nathanson had crossed my musical radar before. Oh hello, Matt Nathanson, nice to see you again.
I first heard his name on Sugarland’s Love on the Inside album (2008), as Jennifer Nettles said the bonus song Come on Get Higher was written by Matt. Matt’s version of the song helped send his album Some Mad Hope platinum; you probably heard it on mainstream radio since they played it constantly.
Matt’s music is a blend of folk and rock; and the reviewers make a huge deal about the fact that his lyrics are supported by a twelve-string acoustic guitar. I don’t really know much about guitars but apparently, more strings equals more difficult and more amazing.
Matt’s songs tell stories but they are written in such a magical way that you have no difficulty following along and putting your own life’s story into the video in your mind. Every Matt Nathanson song reminds me of someone who is now, or who used to be, in my life. That makes me happy and sad at the very same moment. Not a lot of artists can hit you on both ends of your emotional spectrum like that. Those are the kinds of artists, though, that I like to keep on my playlist.
Matt has a great sound and even better lyrics; he’s got the words for everything you want to say even when you didn't know you wanted to say anything. It’s as if Matt is pouring all of his confusion, heartbreak, and hope out on paper. In the moments when misery loves company, Matt Nathanson will be your friend with Bulletproof Weeks. With the lyrics, “talking to what’s left of you, and watching what I say... you sit on your bed, just waiting for right words to come”, I can picture one of those break-ups where one person is trying too hard to fix what’s broken and the other is walking away for a reason they can’t even express. It’s a painful confusion that’s familiar, at one point in life or another, to each of us, yet after Matt gets hold of it and gives it words, you feel like you would have missed something if you’d not been in that struggle for love. Not that you would want to do it again, but that you look back on it differently somehow. It takes an incredibly gifted songwriter to reframe a memory and still make it applicable to the masses; Matt Nathanson has done this remarkably well.
With great tunes like Wedding Dress, Still, Gone, and Sooner Surrender, and Falling Apart, Matt Nathanson’s Some Mad Hope should be in your music collection. And, he has a new album coming out in the Spring 2011 so stay tuned.
No comments:
Post a Comment