Matt’s reclaiming his good name from the realm of the pronouns next month with Hold Time, a 14-track followup to 2006′s excellent Post War. We’re excited. The album’s got a nice little guest list — Grandaddy’s Jason Lytle, Lucinda Williams, DeVotchka’s Tom Hagerman, Ben Gibbard’s girl — although the title track sounds like Matt alone (sounding a little like good buddy Jim James). It’s a beautifully produced affair, with strings and distant pianos and a languorous tempo, all suspended animation and golden croon. M. directs, helpfully adding subtitles to black-and-white slow-motion footage of a futuristic people-mover. It’s all in the contrast.
Hold Time is out 2/17 via Merge.
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Pretty song and I like the melancholic feel of the video. Can’t wait until this album comes out.
I keep thinking that pod is a spaceship, and the song makes me think that it’s carrying the loneliest astronaut in the world.
After that I’m not looking forward to this album as much as I hoped I would.
My indie-superheros can record such nice songs, but tend to put out shitty videos. I’ve made better videos for other bands than this (video from archive.org, mp3 from band, put together using windows movie editor).
Bleh… I doubt this video is official anyway.
given that it’s on his website, I’m thinking yes, it is official.
and I think it’s pretty cool. fits the song’s aesthetic perfectly.
seamless. feels like codeine.
That futuristic people mover is Portland’s own tram, built a couple years ago. Next year, we’re getting a municipal Dumbo ride.
footage is of the new aerial tram in Portland which goes up to to Oregon Health and Science University.
http://portlandtram.org/
Video had a “Meh” quality, but the song was awesome– there’s a lot more layers to Ward’s usual song composition, more orchestral strings and faint warbled synths (and distant tolling bells too?) Gotta love that rich resonant echoing.
A Fant TND describes it best.
He’s actually shooting another new video today and tomorrow in and around Portland. It’s a song that features Ben Gibbard’s girl.
The strings really make that song.
surpassing expectations already
damn this guy is good. underrated too.
This whole album is available at NPR Music:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=99084694
Don’t pass this album up or you’ll miss big songs, like “Star of Leo”.