Mount Temple
The Fly
- Joined
- Jul 27, 2013
- Messages
- 189
Growing up in Vancouver, BC and being a good Canadian kid I have to give some props to Matthew Good, a local lad making good music since 1995.
I was hooked when I first heard 99.3 The Fox drop his debut single "Symbolistic White Walls". Cool bass line rocker with funny and catchy lyrics. Back then it was the Matthew Good Band but hey, things change.
Matthew Good is not a new arrival to the world of rock'n'roll. But while each and every album has explored its own unique sonic territory, none of them have contained the potent immediacy that characterizes his latest offering, "Arrows Of Desire". Where the lushly orchestrated and subtle nuance that permeated Good's previous offering, "Lights Of Endangered Species", felt like a spiritual rebirth of sorts, the ten songs that comprise "Arrows" feel like a sobering recoil; the type of sudden left-turn that longtime listeners have come to appreciate and expect.
Earlier this year Good found himself at home and decompressing from the drawn out touring that supported "Lights". Good has stated that during this time he found himself turning to playlists of old standards, with artists like the Pixies and the Afghan Whigs providing a jumping off point for inspiration. From the moment that Good penned the first notes of what would ultimately become "Via Dolorosa", he knew that this record was simply going to rock.
The album opens with a shifting guitar line that quickly cascades into a forceful groove, serving as the perfect foundation for Good's familiar yet shaky vibrato to deliver the album's opening line, "On a ruined wind to see our promise right in front of you" from the title track. Lyrics have never been an afterthought where Matthew Good Records are concerned, his songs typically finding themselves steeped in dense sets of prose where he gracefully tackles both personal and global topics with an equally disarming sense of sincerity, and "Arrows" finds the man at the top of his proverbial game.
"Here's my golden spear, Here's my cold despair" Good exclaims as the song builds to its climax before he finally utters the ominous lament "Up in this air, we lie in wait." By the time the third track, (and the album's first single), "Had It Coming" arrives, it is obvious that "Arrows" is in no way going to be an acoustic record.
Patience is generously rewarded by the time the album's centerpiece, "Garden Of Knives", starts playing; with Good appropriately singing "My love screams...Yeah, I like the second half"; leading us into what may prove to be the most potent and engaging salvo of songs of his entire career. By the time the Good delivers the final exhale of "It's the only way that I talk, And you've always know that it was, It's the only way I can tell you, Like letters in wartime do" on the album's closing track, "Letters In Wartime", it is clear that the "settling down" in recent years has not watered down any of Matthew Good's artistic vision, but rather distilled into a more focused and refined narrative.
And even with all of that aside, Matthew Good's "Arrows Of Desire" simply rocks.
Essential Matthew Good Band:
-Underdogs (1997)
-Beautiful Midnight (1999)
Essential Matthew Good:
-Avalanche (2003)
- Arrows Of Desire (2013)
Enjoy Interference.
I was hooked when I first heard 99.3 The Fox drop his debut single "Symbolistic White Walls". Cool bass line rocker with funny and catchy lyrics. Back then it was the Matthew Good Band but hey, things change.
Matthew Good is not a new arrival to the world of rock'n'roll. But while each and every album has explored its own unique sonic territory, none of them have contained the potent immediacy that characterizes his latest offering, "Arrows Of Desire". Where the lushly orchestrated and subtle nuance that permeated Good's previous offering, "Lights Of Endangered Species", felt like a spiritual rebirth of sorts, the ten songs that comprise "Arrows" feel like a sobering recoil; the type of sudden left-turn that longtime listeners have come to appreciate and expect.
Earlier this year Good found himself at home and decompressing from the drawn out touring that supported "Lights". Good has stated that during this time he found himself turning to playlists of old standards, with artists like the Pixies and the Afghan Whigs providing a jumping off point for inspiration. From the moment that Good penned the first notes of what would ultimately become "Via Dolorosa", he knew that this record was simply going to rock.
The album opens with a shifting guitar line that quickly cascades into a forceful groove, serving as the perfect foundation for Good's familiar yet shaky vibrato to deliver the album's opening line, "On a ruined wind to see our promise right in front of you" from the title track. Lyrics have never been an afterthought where Matthew Good Records are concerned, his songs typically finding themselves steeped in dense sets of prose where he gracefully tackles both personal and global topics with an equally disarming sense of sincerity, and "Arrows" finds the man at the top of his proverbial game.
"Here's my golden spear, Here's my cold despair" Good exclaims as the song builds to its climax before he finally utters the ominous lament "Up in this air, we lie in wait." By the time the third track, (and the album's first single), "Had It Coming" arrives, it is obvious that "Arrows" is in no way going to be an acoustic record.
Patience is generously rewarded by the time the album's centerpiece, "Garden Of Knives", starts playing; with Good appropriately singing "My love screams...Yeah, I like the second half"; leading us into what may prove to be the most potent and engaging salvo of songs of his entire career. By the time the Good delivers the final exhale of "It's the only way that I talk, And you've always know that it was, It's the only way I can tell you, Like letters in wartime do" on the album's closing track, "Letters In Wartime", it is clear that the "settling down" in recent years has not watered down any of Matthew Good's artistic vision, but rather distilled into a more focused and refined narrative.
And even with all of that aside, Matthew Good's "Arrows Of Desire" simply rocks.
Essential Matthew Good Band:
-Underdogs (1997)
-Beautiful Midnight (1999)
Essential Matthew Good:
-Avalanche (2003)
- Arrows Of Desire (2013)
Enjoy Interference.
