Feeling at once both bluesy and swampy, “Matchsticks” is a strange and, in its way, beautiful sonic experience, or at least hypnotic and beguiling. It moves at its own preferred, slow pace as if leading you through the still waters of a sort of sonic slough (those who know their hydrological terms will be aware that a slough is also known as a Tidal Water channel!)
But it is this brackish sound, this pooling of guitars, that is perfect for the song, one where each beat feels like a step through these unmoving waters; each bar seems to suck you further in, and perhaps under. There is a coolness and claustrophobic feeling, the song itself a slow trek through primal sonics and burbling marine sounds.
If blues music enjoyed its golden age along the banks of the Mississippi River, this is music that feels like it was made right at the point of the shoreline where the mud meets the water.
And if that doesn’t sound like your thing, the song comes with an alternative version where Martin Hovden calls on the talents of Michael Beck to render the song into a simple and effective acoustic folk-pop track. Once again, proving that one song can take on many forms.
As the last taste of the album Polarity, the time has come to collect all those songs in one place to experience the full scope and scale of the musical force that is The Tidal Water. In short, buy the album now!
Links
Pre-order Polarity album
