_____________________________________________________________________________
::k4:
a r t i s t :: Matthew E. White
t i t l e :: Fresh Blood
d a t e :: 2015-00-00
l a b e l :: Domino
g e n r e :: Indie
s o u r c e :: CD
b i t r a t e :: 814 kbps avg
e n c o d e r :: FLAC 1.2.1 -8 -V
t r a c k s :: 10
p l a y t i m e :: 47:00
s i z e :: 275.8MB
tracklist
1 Take Care My Baby 5:31
2 Rock & Roll Is Cold 4:13
3 Fruit Trees 5:19
4 Holy Moly 5:19
5 Circle 'Round The Sun 3:17
6 Feeling Good Is Good Enough 4:35
7 Tranquility 5:49
8 Golden Robes 3:59
9 Vision 5:09
10 Love Is Deep 3:49
releasenotes
Matthew E. White is a devoted Stevie Wonder disciple, and also a devoted
do-it-yourselfer. Accordingly, the aesthetic for his Spacebomb record label
and studio is ôDIYö in the æ70s auteur sense, not in the punk-rock sense. In
interviews, the Richmond, Virginia-based jazz studies alum often name-checks
the likes of Marvin Gaye and Randy Newman. "There's not some punk-rock version
of Stevie Wonder," White told Grantland. "Stevie Wonder is deep music, on a
lot of levels."
WhiteÆs first album under his own name, 2012's Big Inner, contemplated Big
Ideas ù love, death, God ù in an opulent setting of analog-era soul and
down-home psychedelia, brimming with horns and strings. Recent Spacebomb
projects, including the radiant 2015 self-titled debut of former Jenny Lewis
backing singer Natalie Prass, have followed suit. Fresh Blood, White's
sophomore album, mostly stays true to the house style, improving on Big Inner
in some ways, falling short in others, but never less than fully engaged in
the notion of music as a higher ground.
A highlight on Big Inner was "Will You Love Me", a Jimmy Cliff-quoting
slow-burner that gracefully balanced intimacy and studio craft. Fresh Blood
refines this mix of cozy and majestic, with tracks spiraling out from just
Fender Rhodes piano and hushed vocal to luxuriant codas replete with backup
singers and ingeniously unfurling instrumental counterpoint. From the canopy
of vibrant harmonies on "Fruit Trees" to the earthy guitar licks of "Golden
Robes", the music feels both familiar and resplendent. White's mellow, M.
Ward-like coo, occasionally patchy on Big Inner, is honeyed and smooth here.
Lyrically, he builds on the themes of his debut and 2013's Outer Face EP. The
stormy "Holy Moly" echoes a line from the EP's "Eyes Like the Rest", about the
perils of hope, before building to its mantra: "Fuck 'em all, love is home,
home is love, love is all." (According to NPR, the song is inspired by sexual
abuse in the church, though you wouldn't necessarily know it.) Opener "Take
Care My Babyö reiterates some words about the human touch from the EP's "Hot
Hot Hot".
WhiteÆs view of love and music remains decidedly spiritual: Big InnerÆs
finale, "Brazos", for instance, climaxed in a stirring but ambivalent gospel
chant of "Jesus Christ is our Lord, Jesus Christ, He is your friend". White
relies on religious language much less here: When he calls upon Jesus on Fresh
Blood's "Circle 'Round the Sun", it's of a piece with the same song's use of
the Dylan-evoking phrase "shelter from the storm."
At times, WhiteÆs knack for simplicity lapses into the slightly generic. On
"Take Care My Baby", he confides, "I never met another one like you before/
Talking all night long/ From the midnight on," and I mostly want to know what
they were up so late talking about. A similar case is "Feeling Good Is Good
Enough", which begins a compelling story about a couple who "didn't make it"
rekindling their flame by going home together for the night, but ends with
fairly rote "Hey Jude"-like repetitions.
Elsewhere, White overreaches slightly. The poetic, dissonance-streaked hymn
"Tranquility" was written as a tribute to Philip Seymour Hoffman, but it's
forbiddingly cryptic. And White's wry rock crit on first single "Rock & Roll
Is Cold" creates an interesting tension with the song's spacey euphoriaùthink
Spiritualized vamping the Velvet Underground's "I'm Waiting for the Man"ùbut
never quite coheres. Sure, the power of music is mysterious, but when you to
try to sort out why his narrator specifically defines rock'n'roll as "cold",
R&B as "free", and gospel as a "gift", or ponder how those categories might
overlapà well, the power of music is mysterious.
Those are small criticisms, though, and if you focus on the sumptuous sound of
Fresh Blood they become easier to overlook. White addresses his musical
ancestors directly on closer "Love Is Deep", asking, "Ain't it so, Marvin?/
Ain't it so, Stevland?" Gaye and Wonder (whom White pointedly addresses by his
birth name) alike would probably affirm his argument ùthat "love is deep
shit," "sweet shit." It's not the deepest point, but White's musical chops
ensure it's generally convincing.
matthewewhite.tumblr.com
_____________________________________________________________________________
Matthew_E._White-Fresh_Blood-(WIGCD309)-CD-FLAC-2015-k4