Matthew Good's Avalanche

2002 was a great year for music, seeing new David Bowie, Tori Amos, Tom Waits, Our Lady Peace, Tragically Hip, and Dream Theater material, along with countless others. Thus far in 2003 there hasn't been a lot yet, but easily rising to the top of important releases is Matthew Good's sans "Band" solo release, Avalanche. Personally, the Matthew Good Band was one of my favourite groups of artists, easily attaining status alongside the Tragically Hip, almost as a western counterpoint with a more sardonic bent.

Thankfully, Avalanche carries on the progression of sound witnessed from Last of the Ghetto Astronauts to The Audio of Being. The music is still undeniably Matthew Good, still sound enough like MGB to get carry over fans, but also different enough, grander, to perhaps drag in people who didn't like the old material.

As a whole, there's less emphasis on rocking out and overdriven guitars, the album's more expansive, supplementing flashy rock postures with the string section from the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and choral work from Musica Intima. If you took The Cure, The Police, The Pixies, the Tragically Hip, Leonard Cohen, and REM mixed them together and gave them an orchestra to play with, that would closely approximate Matthew Good's sound. There's little pieces of all of them present here and there in his music, lending itself to creating an interesting and expansive, understated alternative rock presence.

Track by Track

Pledge of Allegiance (4:59) - This is one of the tracks that reminds me largely of The Police, driven forward by a slowly pulsating bass rhythm and drum back beat. The chimes and choral work supporting the track is a nice touch that brings it beyond 80's new wave into something a little bit different. It's not upbeat or really catchy at all, and as such it's an interesting way to lead you into the album. It's understated, almost insidious, and feels almost like Good's laying down a gauntlet to say that this won't be as commercial or even as "happy" as previous MGB albums.

Lullaby for the New World Order (3:52) - Easily one of my favourite tracks on the album, this song shows how large and deep, how "ambitious", this solo project is going to be. The strings really come to the fore here, delivering an extremely broad canvas for Good's poignant lyrics, "somebody gave you a choice and all you do is abuse it, if god he gave you a voice, then use it" and interplay of some nice guitar work. There's an acoustic version of the song available for download from Good's secret site that shows the strength of his guitar. For something under four minutes, the song feels a lot "bigger".

Weapon (5:58) - The first single from the album that was originally released months ago as part of the Big Shiny Tunes repertoire. It's one of the few tracks that has Good "rocking out" admist the strings and simple vocals.

In a World Called Catastrophe (5:57) - The second single seems like a Matthew Good Band ballad with strings supporting, which is probably why it was released to remind people that the album was on its ways. It featurs all of the things you'd expect, jabs at the current political climate, self-deprecation, wild structure changes between verses and chorus, Good reaching for higher registers in long, drawn out vocals, and some little bits of guitar work in odd places of the song.

Avalanche (7:26) - ...and then we get to Leonard Cohen. There's an almost carousel-like, tarantella rhythm to the beginning of the song, dancing around Good reaching to lower, rough registers almost speak-singing like Cohen, building to a crescendo of the chorus, and a fall back into a cacaphophy of numerous voices similar to say Tricky, and then a further repetition of the tarantella, shift to a refrain of a Tori Amos period of lofty heights, and back into a crescendo to the chorus, and back down again. It's truly a beautiful, moving song.

21st Century Living (3:10) - Then we get a three-minute rant on "super-sizing" that sounds a bit like Rick Mercer put to music, a bit like an 80's REM tune, and a little bit like the MGB of old. The song is hilarious to listen to, certainly one of the best on the album, and has some valid points to it. It works as both an anthem and as a three-minute counter culture commercial, I can't wait to see a video for this.

While We Were Hunting Rabbits (8:00) - This is a rhythm piece. Or at least that's what I get out of it. It's hard to say exactly what this one sounds like, it's like a melting pot of 80's sounds, and a haunting vocal track. It's almost a Roxy Music track in some parts, it's almost The Police, it's almost So-era Peter Gabriel, but it's none of them. The rhythm to it is phenomenal, a great undulating bass line, coupled with pounding drums that only appear for brief periods. That's the first half of the song, the latter half is a long and beautiful crescendo of the strings alone.

Bright End of Nowhere (4:08) - This is a nice, short love ballad, with a very nice piano part. It's just a beautiful song, really.

Near Fantastica (8:00) - This track is bizarre and probably as multi-faceted as "Avalanche". It starts out similar to a Peter Gabriel tune from Passion or Long Walk Home, then develops into a long introduction piece similar to The Cure, only to wind up as a crazy rock piece. Upon first listening to it, it seemed out of place to me with the rest of the album, but it grows on you quickly, finding new little pieces that you don't notice instantly.

Song for the Girl (3:16) - This is another love song of sorts, but as a harder rock ballad than the beauty of "Bright End of Nowhere".

Double Life (4:22) - Here's the track where the Pixies influence shines through the most, not necessarily sounding like a Pixies track, but more like Catherine Wheel. Old MGB fans will probably love this track, which is a lot more upbeat and "rocking" than the rest of the album. I can see this one being released as a single for the summer, actually, it feels like it could be a good summer song. Kind of like "Indestructable" from Underdogs in its structure. As Good himself has said, "Sometimes you just need to rock out," and it's a good thing he does here.

A Long Way Down (3:56) - I'm a sucker for cello, drums, and bass. I'd wager that this track was partly inspired by the promo music on the "what's coming up next" on Much More Music, which follows a similar layering of the three, but maybe I'm just hearing things. When they throw in piano playing lower chords and what sounds like horns -- probably just keyboard, because I don't see a listing for horn players in the credits -- I'm hooked. It's kind of a jazzy piece actually.

House of Smoke & Mirrors (6:05) - To me, the weakest song on any Matt Good Band album is always the last song. It's usually the slowest, most contemplative, and eschews any sort of structure. It seems like he's not set to disappoint on his first solo album. It's not to say that the songs themselves are bad, this one certainly isn't, the piano is downright beautiful, but it leaves you on a quiet, sedated note with no real memory of the song itself due to how slow and long it usually is. It's probably better that he puts them at the end of the album, due to how soothing they are, though. If you want to fall asleep, or simply to relax, this is a good song to get you there.

Out of My Head

I'm a fairly simple kind of guy. I wake up in the morning, I take a shower, I put on my clothes, eat breakfast, go to work, yada yada yada yada. The same as just about everyone else. I do, however have a weakness. Whereas some people are addicted to caffeine, or alcohol, or fluffy bunnies, I have an addiction to media. It doesn't matter what it is -- print, film, radio, music -- I don't care, I'll listen to it. ...or watch it. ...or read it. It doesn't matter. I always have to be reading, watching, or listening to something, even if I'm doing something else at the time. I have to continuously have some kind of sensory input using some part of my faculties.

It's not enough for me, though, to just watch, read, or listen to something, that should be readily apparent to anyone who's been visiting this website or reading my work for any period of time. My highly critical, analytical brain has to try to make some kind of sense out of the stimuli that results in essays, reviews, and just plain old incoherent ramblings. In my attempts to further my own critical analysis abilities, I've been writing comics and graphic novel reviews for some time now, along with the occasional CD review here and there, and now I come to this Spin the Shiny Plastic Circle. This is my attempt to be a film critic. Kind of. More like a film on DVD critic. Music critic too, because they come in handy dandy plastic circle form as well.