Matthew P - Long Straight Lines
Artist: Matthew P
Album: Long Straight Lines
Label: YDNA Records
Rating: 4/5
At the end of a busy working week, it’s always good to throw on a record that can whisk you away from your worries in a Newton Faulkner fashion. That may just be the secret as to how he sold so many copies…
Trying to emulate that sort of success is Matthew P, hailing from Suffolk with a guitar in hand and seemingly no cares in his world. Matthew’s past experience with members of Athlete and Snow Patrol should stand him in good stead for his debut album and thankfully is more than effective than a giant stress ball for relieving a week’s tension.
The mix of gentle guitar strumming, Matthew’s soothing voice and his placid and mellifluous lyrics go a long way to making Long Straight Lines an exceptionally easy listen.
This all comes whilst sounding like a folksy, Suffolk-bred version of Beck. Sharing the American’s love of old fashioned and oddly-placed instruments alongside off kilter vocals, Matthew P‘s endearingly quirky. Feet on The Ground especially feel ripped from the mind of the Californian singer.
The trouble is that while they may feel different to quite a lot of other artists, the tracks do tend to start like each other. Thankfully, while the first half of the album comes dangerously close to becoming one note, the back half of the album is nicely varied. Both Gilly and Patti add that little injection of pace that keeps the album in your very good books before ending on a lovely, sweet note.
In the end, Long Straight Lines feels like a wander through a golden field; occasionally a bit of a trudge and a little aimless to begin with, but a nice, sunny stroll in the end.
Mathew P – Long Straight Lines is out July 23rd
FemaleFirst Cameron Smith