I’m sure I said as much when I wrote about his excellent single “Rough Patch,” but it is worth repeating: Matt Saxton excels at writing songs for the more mature music fan. Or at least from a more mature perspective. So whilst he might write about events and memories from the past, recollections of the formative days of relationships, he does so with the philosophical attitude and reflective awareness of someone who can put things into perspective.
To say that Saxton is a balladeer is a bit of a disservice, but his songs often fall into that more reserved zone between grace and groove, understament and hook. Piano-driven but fleshed out with gorgeous, cinematic sounds, the aforementioned “Rough Patch” is perhaps the epitome of what he does. As it rises from gentle pop through the realms of sophisticated indie to finally explode in a sassy sax solo, and as he dwells on the more thoughtful side of relationships, you realise, not just what an astute songwriter he is but also what an ear for wide-screen composition he has too.
“The Edge of Things” is another song whose energy takes you by surprise, again starting in a pop place but shot through with soul horns and R&B grooves. “Unknown Soldier” is a wonderful acknowledgment of those who have made the ultimate sacrifice and how the actions of even those in our own families often remain hidden from us.
The album ends with a brilliant summation of love, life, and relationships, the impermanence of life, and how we might be remembered after we have gone, in the infectious and insightful “You and I,” a graceful and thought-provoking footnote if ever there was one.
In a world where every acoustic strummer and pop wannabe seems to want to sell us half-baked love songs, songs based on little life experience and even less understanding and awareness, Matt gives us songs that, although they come from a personal place, contains ideas and sentiments, experiences and thoughts that we can all relate too, and which could only be written by someone who has not only been fully immersed in love but who has fought hard to keep it. You won’t get that from the usual 21-year-old pop princess-in-waiting or gap-year troubadour, will you?
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