Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A breath of fresh air in a disgraceful time for music., October 30, 1999
By A Customer
Boasting enough big pop hooks to make John Lennon smile in his grave, and with enough irony to satisfy a small nation, Matt Mahaffey (aka Self) is the pride of Murfreesboro, Tennessee. This small college town of 75,000 is where he honed his craft; drumming for bluegrass and reggae groups and assisting local rappers in the studio. Finally, after a short-lived major label deal and a bizarro guitarless record, The Half-Baked Serenade, Mahaffey is back with the brilliant third installment in the saga of Self, entitled Breakfast With Girls. It's a record that seems to walk the common ground between his guitar-oriented `95 debut, Subliminal Plastic Motives and Serenade, and whether he's messing around with string sections ("What Are You Thinking?"), ancient Casio keyboards ("Uno Song") or building entire songs around LL Cool J samples (the title track), everything that Mahaffey touches turns to gold. And he accentuates these songs perfectly with a unique, clever lyrical style, such as in tracks like "Paint By Numbers," a witty condemnation of prepackaged top 40 garbage ("Why tear out my heart, for all the world to see?/Why not paint by numbers, catchy melodies?") and a quirkiness that can be found on the off-center lettering on the album's cover. Breakfast With Girls seems just too smart and eclectic to make it in today's musical world where the melodically challenged rule, but at least do yourself a favor; become one of the informed ones and pick this record up today. You'll remember what good music sounded like.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
what a shame, March 27, 2001
what a shame - it just may be that the only people that ever heard this album are those who reviewed it here, and those who live in matt mahaffey's home town. i literally stumbled upon it based solely on the other reviewer's recommendations. this is a beautiful pop album, in the spirit of beck and the beach boys. songs like 'meg ryan', 'suzie q...', 'paint by numbers', and last but not least 'what are you thinking' are pure pop perfection. 'what are you thinking' is a masterpiece of modern pop. i burn a lot of cd mixes for people, and nothing gives me more pleasure than to include one or all of these songs on one made for a friend who loves 'radio rock'. i agree with another reviewer when he/she says that they only wish that they could make music like this too. i bought his first two albums after hearing this one, and subliminal plastic motives is excellent as well.
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A genius in line with Bowie, Prince & Beck...., February 1, 2000
Matt Mahaffey is a man with a lot going on in his head. And luckily for us he takes a lot of it and releases it as some powerful pop music. He has an encyclopedic knowledge of pop and knows how to put together mini-epics that sound like somebody put Jellyfish in the blender with Beck, Nirvana and Ben Folds Five. But comparing Self to other bands is disingenuous because Mahaffey is a real original. These songs will never leave your skull--you'll hum and sing the tunes when you least expect it. If you like great pop melodies, tons of energy (crunchy guitars, groovy breakbeats) and an unusual sense of fun, you can't go wrong with this disc....
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