If the press release is to be believed, MICHAEL MATTICE has been preparing for long term success in the music business since he was 8 years old. Well, of course he has. He used to be in the progressive metal band Yantra and has now decided to go solo as an acoustic singer/songwriter.
But has he pulled off his reinvention? Not quite, although the album has some wonderful acoustic guitar playing it mainly comes across as the sort of wallpaper music you'd expect to hear while sipping on a soy latte sprinkled in nutmeg dust in some hipper than hip coffee shop full of the most right-on, follow-the-latest trend hipsters imaginable. All of whom would be talking over and/or ignoring the music, of course.
For me, none of the songs grabbed me or made me listen to the lyrics apart from Led To Gold: the ninth of the ten songs on the album. I think it's a song either about a loved one dying or a girlfriend walking away from him, but either way it's the only song on the album I need to hear again. Having said that, I wouldn't mind hearing several of the other tunes stripped of the vocals so they sound more like Bert Jansch instrumentals as he has that sort of guitar sound really well pegged.
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For me, if Michael Mattice is to achieve the Long Term success he seems to want it will probably still be as the guitarist in a band rather than as a solo troubadour.
Michael Mattice online
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