June 22, 2003 – D

Matthew Good’s Avalanche

They’ve brought someone in to shut you up
And it’s getting to be light work

I have enjoyed listening to two of this Canadian musician’s previous albums, Beautiful Midnight and Audio of Being. The focus in Matthew Good’s lyrics, it seems to me, has always been to acknowledge the reality of human evil.  So some of the songs in those two CD’s are disturbing and after a while I tended to skip over the creepier ones.  On the other hand, the intensity of his style of singing is so incredible that I believe he is one of the greatest rock musicians anywhere.

Matthew Good’s latest album Avalanche is even better than the last two.  It is different in certain ways:  the darker stuff is absent, it is more uplifting and there is less profanity. So I recommend this CD if you like rock music with serious themes.

There is power in the music and in Good’s voice.  The essential meanings come through loudly in the sound and the words combined: the political, the human, and the emotional messages.

They never play the best music on the radio by the way.  I have never heard the best songs from Audio of Being on the radio.  And I would be surprised if they played the best from Avalanche.

I rate an album by counting the tracks I like. For most bands, 4 out of 13 is above average. For Avalanche I rate it 10 out of 13, which is normal for Matthew Good – and the other songs aren’t bad anyway.  Here are my 9 favorite tracks, leaving out one of the hits:

• While We Were Hunting Rabbits
• Lullaby for the New World Order
• Pledge of Allegiance
• Weapon
• Avalanche
• 21st Century Living
• Near Fantastica
• A Long Way Down
• Double Life