Matthew Henry John Bartlett

My friend Aaron and i are sending our friend Ben Goldenhorse‘s lush album Riverhead (Lyrics). We are keen to get him to like some pop music.

Tonight i went for a walk with the dog and the discman and wrote down some notes about each track to help Ben like the CD. Happily he despises blogdom, so he won’t see this before the CD & notes arrive in the post.

MP3 schnippets of the songs available at smokecds.com.

Northern Lights Kirsten M’s nice voice. Your first glimpse of a band whose expressed intention is to create beauty in an often ugly world.

Spice Islands Opens with pretty triplets on the hihats which come back to say hello later on. Pleasing boy + girl harmonies. Quite exciting instrumental finish.

Golden Dawn Whimsical old church piano on the left channel. Bouyant chorus floating up above the verses. More happy piano arpeggios to end.

Maybe Tomorrow Bass guitar replacing bass drum.

Riverhead Lots of inconsequential and fantasy lyrics throughout album. Starts dark but they can’t seem to help lapsing into prettiness. ‘On a thorny bed’ soaring over lush lush strings.

Wake Up Brother Bass guitar wandering around all over the place. Oo-aah’s that make me fear for my poor mortal heart. Super lovely contrasty section towards the end.

Shrinking Her Legs First obvious use of electronic bits and bobs. A lot of interesting drum textures. A song structure considerably more complex than your average pop ditty. Clarinets. Trills and triplets in the strings. Melancholic, understated guitar solo to finish.

Out Tonight Happy silly song to cheer us up again. Feels like some wierd new polished folk-esq genre.

Baby’s Been Bad Deuling trumpet & trombone. Drums so crazy happy.

American Wife Inspired by the book My Year of Meat apparently. Satrirical somehow but obsurely, and not nastily so. Guitar solo could have come from the same 50s America of the lyrics.

Dark Forest
The crowning glory. The guy who does the backing vocals must be quite modest to be content to be never more than a gentle support for the lead. I am walking down my street now, almost home, with headphones on and this notepad in my hand, following Jenny the dog. The stars are out, it’s a completely clear night. The Southern Cross is directly in front of me. I can smell woodfires and a bit of pot. Now that the CD is done, the click of Jenny’s toenails against the asphalt is the loudest sound around.