Rating:
* * * *
He might prefer the seeming formality of going by his first initial but M. - Matt - Ward hasn't let that stop him being approachable. The Portland, Oregon singer-songwriter and deft acoustic guitarist, who's now up to his sixth album of rootsy raspy literate folk rock, has played and/or produced on the albums of many others (Norah Jones, Cat Power, Jenny Lewis, Bright Eyes). And he's got a thing for a considered cover version too.
His earlier take on David Bowie's
Let's Dance
was on the soundtrack of
Eagle vs Shark
. Here, he reprises Buddy Holly's
Rave On
, his restrained reverbed take heading for David Lynch territory, while his slide'n'strings take on Don Gibson's
Oh Lonesome Me
starts off pretty enough but positively blooms with the arrival of Lucinda Williams as a duet partner.
She's not Ward's only female foil here - actress Zooey Deschanel, with whom Ward recorded an album last year under the moniker She & Him, features a couple of times too.
But despite the borrowings, it's an album not lacking in either power or personality, whether Ward is revving up a Beach Boys-sized number on
To Save Me
, quoting William Blake on
Blake's View
, or contemplating what he learned at Catholic school on
Epistemology
. And despite his increasingly long list of friends, M.Ward's songs, especially on the ballads which dominate the second half, remain the sound of a lonesome man saving his best conversations for himself. But on
Hold Time
he sure makes lonely sound lovely, and this may well be his best set yet.
Russell Baillie
The host has been spotted across the Atlantic post-election.