a coherent collection of random statements regarding God, words and tunes

Hit and Run (bonus track)

Let's start with the confessional part, which in light of I'd ask you therefore not to interpret the rest as damning with faint praise: Truthfully, I wasn’t expecting that much from this, given that it’s a solo album by neither of the two lead singer/songwriters of one of my favorite discoveries of the past year or so, The Kamikaze Hearts. Plus, it’s not even 30 minutes long (although there are 10 perfectly complete songs here). 

That said, multi-instrumentalist Matthew Loiacono has a lot to do with the sound behind the K-Hearts, as well as with getting the best-kept secret in Albany, New York out there (being at least a significant part of the brains behind their label Collar City Records). Plus, he answers his e-mails and is quite the nice guy, so I owed him a purchase for that reason alone. And that all said, it’s pretty danged good....

Matthew Loaicono – Kentucky. ...certainly good enough to keep my appetite whetted until the next K-Hearts album shows up -- and for that matter, until the next Nickel Creek and Sufjan Stevens albums show up (whenever the heck those might be) – because as opposed to the thoroughly Americana K-Hearts, Matthew isn’t shy about showing off his sonic chops in a way in which the results come out sounding like something other than The Great Lost Band and/or Son Volt Album (see again the wonderful Oneida Road – which, I’ll add, is my current wake-up/bedroom CD and works fine as both, thankyouverymuch). 

There’s plenty of mandolin here to keep us grounded – including a couple enjoyable instrumental tracks – but there’s also plenty of neat fuzz/distortion here that takes things where I, for one, wasn’t expecting. And while Matthew’s voice isn’t as distinctive as that of either Troy Pohl or Gaven Richard, he holds his own just fine (although again Chris Thile wouldn’t be out of place here -- especially obvious on the plaintive “Right Behind You.”) The lyrics, as with so many things I get into these days, are rather impressionistic yet intriguing. Case in point, from the vocally multitracked and movingly mandolined piece that is “Vaults and Crowns” : “May we call the fear of sound / so crisp then hope dissolves us down / What keeps us whole will hold us out / till time lands still devoid of doubt.”

Among the other highlights: “Infinitely Red” is probably the standout track here, as it sounds like the Seven Dwarves doing a woodblocked rhumba with our good buddy Sufjan. The perkily-if-not-frenetically repeated refrain, “We didn’t need to think hard/we didn’t need to think at all” will stick in your head long after it’s done. The melodic “Modest Birds” answers that with what sounds like a flight of optimism and the encouragement to move forward – “though we know the way they need to get to where they’re going / home they’ll stay forgetting all the worst that followed them.”

“Knee-to-Knee” takes the fuzz factor, slows it down for effect, and throws some pretty neat hairy guitar over the top of it at the end, after delivering what almost sounds like a benediction despite its draggy somberness:

There must be moments
we leave out of our dreams
when we recite them
to each other knee-to-knee
I hope your vision always lasts
I hope your peacefulness stays free
whether time will catch up to us now
or when the boughs of death will bring release
it’s all to see…

And while I don’t know who the closer “Through the Night” is about, I sure wish I did: “They held a mission in your name / and proved the theory wrong that you had been forsaken / We guessed you wouldn’t be gone long  / you left the water running, didn’t stop to take hold of your son.... / honestly, I can’t see / through the light and what you came for / the music that you killed for/ and honestly, I can’t be / what you wanted when you came for / the music that you killed for.”

You’ve bought worse. Recently. I’m quite sure of it. I certainly have, in any case. And again, these guys aren’t leaving Albany for Colorado anytime soon unless you throw them some buckage. So make it happen, a’ight?

Posted by: burninglight at 18:23 | link | comments (4)

Comments:

#1  27 October 2008 - 19:51

 

I'll keep it in mind, as I will the whole Nickel Creek thing.

I was hoping you would have the scoop on the latest Pretenders, sometime.

Jim

LDVoyager

#2  28 October 2008 - 01:04

 

nickel creek is amazing.

larryl

#3  30 October 2008 - 17:37

 

I wish I knew as much about music as you do, and had the time to actually put this much thought into it....:-) thanks for your insights, one of these days I might have to actually look for some of the things you talk about and actually listen to it...to get the full experience...:-)

22apples4ever

#4  30 October 2008 - 17:46

 

Poke around eMusic a bit. That'll get you started. :)

burninglight

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