A Meditation On Place, Time, And Life In An Uncommon Age

For as long as I’ve been listening to Matthew’s music, it still strikes me how his voice and lyrics wrap around me like a warm blanket. There is wisdom, but also playfulness and an odd kind of melancholic joy. He doesn’t put out anything just because, it’s always clearly something that had to come out.

This song feels like it’s been a long time coming. Not just because it’s been four years since his last release, but also the heavy sense of experience and reflection that the tune emanates. In taking stock of the city that surrounds him and his place in it, he seems to be at once paying homage to and taking square aim at the changes in a growing Middle American metropolis, in this case Fort Worth, Texas.

But the city is only the vehicle through which he is taking stock of himself, as it “lies just like I do, but loves all the mess that we make,” he accepts responsibility for his own foibles alongside those of his hometown.

The arrangement and production are sublime, thanks to his spot-on band and the talents of local wunderkind Taylor Tatsch on the board. Dynamics are a forgotten art in the loudness wars, and we’re lucky that neither Taylor nor Matthew don’t seem to care whether the radio bots object.

Songs like this don’t come around too often. I can picture future generations revisiting this one for years to come. It’s one of those that sounds like it sprang fully formed from the ground. More likely is that the author’s rain gauge had been filling for a while, and when everything spilled out, it contained all of life in one simple but perfect soufflé. For aren’t we all in some way the monster who lives by the lake?

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