Scott Matthews - Home Part 2
Scott Matthews had some unfinished business...
Teasingly titled, 2014’s episodic “Home Part 1” hinted at more to come but those unaware of his background in the visual arts may be unprepared for its full Technicolour, widescreen sibling. There is undoubtedly something very cinematic about these new recordings.
Certainly, it’s been a long wait for fans and supporters of Scott Matthews and so it is with a mixture of pleasure and relief that I can report that his new collection, “Home Part Two” connects just wonderfully.
Far from being a departure, there is nevertheless a momentum to this record and a sense of an expanding universe. Imbued with the romance of mystery and the mystery of romance, there is plenty for the casual listener to enjoy from but a skim over its highly varied and accessible surface. The real gold is found, as ever, by those digging in a little deeper. For sure, there is a lot going on here – a result perhaps of the more experimental, relaxed methodology and freedom from someone else’s studio clock – and it would be a shame to miss the nuances. Certainly, like repeated viewings of a favourite movie, the shifting of time may well reveal previously unfound treasures but why wait? The invitation to turn on, tune in and immerse oneself is there from the start. All the usual layers are there, including the bitter/sweet juxtapositioning and contrasting of lyrical and musical ideas, the magnificent musicianship and of course, that voice. But there is even more; areas of Scott’s creative identity that we have glimpsed before - that curious conglomeration of the mystical and elemental and essential with the enlightened and urbane - emerge less bashful and more developed in a an absorbing, seductive recording.
So, are you sitting comfortably? Then I’ll begin…
Drifter Serving as a preface to the album as a whole, “Drifter” begins with a simple if busy Djembe and guitar over which Scott intones one of his typically wordless, improvised vocal meanderings as it slowly fades in. With this unassuming entrance, like a shy friend arriving late for a party, we are introduced again to his particular musical landscape. Despite the sudden introduction of sweet CSN&Y Venice Beach harmonies though, this landscape is snowbound. All roads look the same and featureless but time is passing and Scott, like the snow, is drifting. Self-referencing a line from, and revisiting the themes of, the title track of his very first album, “Passing Stranger”, he knows he is “long way past the sign, ‘one mile to dine’, no turning back”. Cheerful Mandolin and affirming electric guitar introduce a final optimistic note. And so, the album begins its road home, wherever that might be. Like Joni Mitchell, he may not know where he’s going but he’s going.
The Rush First stop: Heartland USA. With a full band arrangement, all on top form throughout, “The Rush” is a self-assured, easy-paced slice of Americana with a Harmonica cherry on top. The laid-back swagger of the musical setting provides the backdrop (or maybe ‘Movie Set’ as this is one of several visually evocative tracks on the album) for reflections on internal conflict as Scott gives himself a really good talking to.
Where I long to be Featuring the twin delights of Danny Keane’s unearthly, sweeping cello, tabla and the close-miked intimacy of Scott’s voice at its most fragile, “Where I want to be” draws the listener to its flickering light like a moth to a candle. This is familiar territory but perhaps the point of view has shifted a little. Peculiarly poetic, like Elbow at their most pensive, we suspect that the central, gently expressed theme that “there is no time to waste” is aimed as much at Scott himself as it is his audience.
Black Country Boy The playful, bluesy, lap-steel improvisation of “Black Country Boy” is one of those occasional, short segues of the type with which owners of “Passing Stranger” in particular will be familiar. With tongue in cheek, re-inventing Seasick Steve as Mal De Mer Matthews, this whimsical musical framing however highlights a picture of an altogether different nature and it comes as quite a surprise to Scott warn us “Nobody tells me where to go or what to believe”. A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down…
Two Entwined There are some cynical folks out there who may, being less than fortunate in their own personal relationships, think that “Two Entwined” could just as easily be entitled “Too Entwined”. Lyrically, it is a gut twistingly, beautifully expressed, open examination of reliance on love and reciprocal gratitude for it. Entirely cliché’ free, there is though also an almost apologetic quality to the emotional kernel of it all that sophisticates the raw sentiment. And it’s all done without us really noticing. It’s a real gift to have such a quality and reminiscent of Neil Finn in more than this. Breezy, catchy and with a stunning cyclical bass line and deceptively clever drums, sometimes we are too dazzled by the beauty of the journey we are on to catch all the signposts along the way. And we may not think that it matters. And we would be right.
Stay in bed Skittering acoustic guitar and a cello, sometimes mimicked by the subtlest of backing vocals provide a suitably unworldly soundscape. Returning to a recurring theme as effortlessly as one succumbs to a recurring dream, “Stay in bed” is a charmingly wistful evocation of a young soul’s understandable reluctance to re-join an old, old world. Is this sleep we ponder ‘perchance to dream’ or ‘to forget’?
Guardians of sleep Selected with the care of any lovelorn teenagers mix list, the track listing surely demanded that “Guardians of Sleep” should follow “Stay in bed”. Musically, it is though a very different kettle of early morning tea. Well, at least half of it is, for this is a song of two-halves – a mini-epic in fact. In secret arena of the dream state our protagonist searches for “the place our dreams collide”, and longs to retain and repeat the experience and ephemeral intangibility of being resident in The land of Nod. As we slip with him into the second part of song, a new melody and an insistent, punchy sounding, vaguely psychedelic, band arrangement takes over the reins of our consciousness as Scott declares his love for whom we know not! Perhaps the least immediate of the songs on “Home Part Two”, I suspect that this reverie on Freud’s famous phrase will ultimately emerge as one of the most enduring. It is certainly one of the most ambitious and intriguing. Though it is tempting to hunt for a clear narrative line through the song, just as one tries to make sense of a baffling dream, the reality is on this occasion I am happy to resist my programming and be left beguiled, in my unquiet slumbers.
The Lantern Flower Using the allusion to the Lantern Flower's relationship to the Hummingbird, Scott's musings on interdependence and attraction as day follows night and the seasons cycle are the very stuff of poetry; his phrasing beautifully simple yet profound. Redolent with the energies of a writer not yet in, if approaching, his prime, "The Lantern Flower" is a both a portent and snapshot from the well of possibility that is Scott's future creative life. With an assured sounding band behind him, Scott paints clear melodic lines - a brief, tense instrumental bridge after the verses making the release of a soaring chorus a hook you are glad to be impaled upon.
Steal my star “I don’t wish for much” pleads Scott in the verse section of the sparsely arranged “Steal my star”. Heartfelt and touching, in his higher register, the plaintive quality of his voice is impassioned and bizarrely reminds me of the early solo work of another of the greatest songwriters this country has ever produced, one Peter Dennis Blandford Townshend. With the instrumentation and reverb, enhancing the late 1960s atmosphere, as with Neil Hannon of The Divine Comedy, it is ultimately the sincerity of the performance that prevents it from wandering into pastiche. Without wishing to steal Scott’s star this may be just the time to mention the contribution of Sam Martin’s drums. As on “So Long My Moonlight" from the “What the night delivers” album, alongside an exquisite stand-up bass, his delicate yet potent playing pushes all the right buttons for those were lucky enough to see Pentangle with Terry Cox behind the kit, most especially on ride cymbal work.
Anything Another knowing interlude in the proceedings is the brief but lovely “Anything”. Folky acoustic and tremolo heavy electric guitars are sung all over by close harmonies in a style that harks back to the early 1950s. “I’ll do anything you want to comfort you” is the plaintive cry. It all sounds sincere enough but I’m not sure if I believe him. If a wistful smile were a song, this would be it.
Waltz at Nightfall Smothered at first in a fog of reverb, as if one had walked into an empty hall where a band is rehearsing, the mists gradually dissipate but the unease increases as a melancholic, sinister sounding accordion emerges from the fog. As if it were the theme song for the spy movie classic that never got made, in our heads we may catch a glimpse of Ingrid Bergman lighting a cigarette in a darkened doorway as the music and message spiral with an increasing sense of the melodramatic. And the band plays on, impossibly romantic with a hint of faded glamour. 1-2-3, 2-2-3, and we keep time as the vocal’s drama unfolds, the band becomes more and more feverish and it ends - in a collapsed heap, as we watch the credits roll.
Home and Dry Less of a drama but still with a nostalgic kick to it and employing what sounds like a fiendishly difficult finger picking, “Home and Dry” has the shadow of the Appalachians hanging over it. A call to keep faith, it is a promise of support and an encouragement to carry on, no matter how difficult the path ahead - the future - may be because; “You’re nearly home and dry on the other side”. It’s a simple, poignant message, tenderly offered in a voice that succinctly encapsulates the meaning of the word “lonesome”.
Good Times Perhaps the irony is in simply in the title of “Good Times” but mark my words, there’s irony at work somewhere here – I can smell it. Perhaps it is in the fact that Scott has chosen to sign off this always thoughtful, mostly positive, occasionally joyous album with a song that at face value is celebratory but has a decidedly unnerving quality nevertheless. The suspicion that there’s more than meets the ear is aroused by a lyric with lines that could be taken one of several ways. Driven by a jaunty, home-style sounding piano and strict tempo percussion, this parting shot sounds to be from a man who may becoming more content with himself but not necessarily with the world he is forced to inhabit. It’s a compelling end to a compelling piece of work.
So, there we have it.
Variously oblique then touchingly open, typically restless then staggeringly assured – from the darkness of the shadows and brilliance of light, the songs of “Home Part 2” emerge as an eclectic box of perfectly formed vignettes. Encompassing folk, Americana and less obviously, gothic and psychedelic elements to form a hurly-burlesque hybrid, the album is nodding politely to, rather than imitating his own history. Whether stripped bare to guitar and voice or expansively supported by his band, it’s a heady brew that represents not so much a change of a dominant direction but an exploration of several.
Whilst older fans will doubtless love the familiarity of the albums informal structure, so similar to his 2007 debut “Passing Stranger”, for the uninitiated, “Home Part 2” would be an ideal point to hop on board.
Ultimately what gives this album its energy is the not that it “sounds like his first” but that it “feels like a first”.
Links:
http://www.pledgemusic.com/projects/scott-matthews-home-part-2
http://www.scottmatthews.uk
Twitter: @scottmatthewsuk