Matthew Good's Style Through The Years

[ktopar]

Hey, I'm a student at Berklee college of music in Boston and I'm doing a modern music paper for one of my classes about MG and his music.

 

Does anyone else agree that it seems since early demos and LastGhetto that his musical style got more and more etherial/fluid/enigmatic and then with Avalanche and WhiteLight became more rough/underproduced? (Not in a bad way though)

 

I've kind of been thinking in sort of a circle, him touching back on the sound that he started with

 

Or maybe I'm wrong and dumb. let me know

[The_Rat_Who_Would_be_King]

I think you could make that case with WLRRR but not Avalanche. The point of WLRRR was to be underproduced, wheres the reverse was true for Avalanche. I think.

[ktopar]

yea, WhiteLight was in a way a leap from the sounds of Avalance. When posting I was listening to HouseOfSmokeMirrors which is more in the vein of WhiteLight (to me). But WL has definatly a much more textural and raw sound then Avalanche; forgive me for my audacity ;)

[Maverick]

Yes, there's no way Avalanche was underproduced. Same goes with BM and Underdogs.

[Dan #2]

Yeah, the point of Avalanche was to make the ultimate indie recording, but with the budget and jazz that major labels can provide.

 

White Light was to strip it down and Rock!

[no yu begin wher i end]

Well, after Avalanche, how much more studio work could be done on an album like that. It was pretty well polished. I guess you could say that Avalanche was his studio pinnacle, in a manner of speaking. After being able to accomplish that, I'd think he's just going to do the more stripped-down affairs.

 

Other than that, there is a definite change in the styles of the albums. LOTGA and earlier demos all have that folksy vibe to them; Underdogs had a grungier sound to it, kind of like the Pixies and earlier Radiohead. BM and AoB are both pretty intense, as well as darker and deeper than the last few releases. Avalanche is the mellowing out album, and WLR&RR is just rocking out. (Heh, "just.")

[ktopar]

yea, I see what you're saying. I agree with the relationship to the pixies. I relate the earlier demo work to a slight country/folk-esque Ryan Adam's 'Love Is Hell' approach. Appreciating and enjoying all the directions of his works, I most love the constant complexity and subtle personality of the lyrics from early early work to work with R Dahle.

Thanks for your input man, its good to hear other peoples opinions.

[Maverick]

Wait a minute... I just got this idea... this could go in the Matthew Good section. Maybe because it's about Matthew Good.... I don't know, shot in the dark.

[jimpattison411]

A steady progression is the key to every artists evolution.

[Doc]

Precisely. If any artist puts out the same thing time after time, it gets boring. (ie. listen to the new 3 Doors Down, you'll get an idea of what I'm talking about).

 

Incubus has been doing it for years. Matt's work has undergone changes as well.

 

If you listen to Avalanche, it DOES sound polished, but that's kind of what the idea was. He used a Kaos pad, for god sakes. I personally am a much bigger fan of WLR&RR. Recording live off the floor to me captures the essence of a performance better. With a program like ProTools, anyone can make a slick sounding recording, but doing it live with analog takes a lot more work and ultimately sounds better. Having been involved with both over the past couple of years with my friends band, ProTools is a million times easier to use, but I've always preferred the sound of analog, sounds warmer for some reason.

 

You also have to consider that as an artist mature's, content is going to change. Could Matt have written something like Buffalo Seven or Fell in Love with a Bad Idea 10 years ago? Probably not. It likely wouldn't have been appreciated quite as much back then either.

 

There's a lot to consider when looking at an artists collective works, especially when you're doing a paper.

 

Good Luck with it, hope it turns out well.

 

D

[c0micb0y]

Anyone else feel that All Together sounds more like a pre-LOTGA tune than an AOB b-side? More musically than lyrically...?