Customer Reviews

Golden Days Before They End

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A lovely, forceful, mesmerizing record. Matt Suggs' musical and lyrical gifts (always evident as the best part of the illustrious 90s pop band Butterglory), have evolved into something stronger and more confident. Matt is a spellweaving storyteller who has constructed an album of vignettes with a cohesive flow. Golden Days Before They End is brimming with imagery and the sheer joy of making music.

. . . and led the life of a troubador, he just might play along with the new Matt Suggs solo record. On this, his first, solo record since Butterglory disbanded, Suggs brings Elliott Smith-like piano forward in the mix, engages the listener in a dusty Mexican standoff, and continues to sing about heartache, drums, and moons in a way that made his delivery in Butterglory so affecting and unique.

Golden Days Before They End is a sweet, sad, bitter indie pop record that taps into the spaciousness of "Village Green Preservation Society"-era Kinks nostalgia with certain honor and civility. Ranjit Arab and Stephen Naron, who played on Rat Tat Tat, the final Butterglory release, join Suggs on this record, adding further subtleties to the ground they explored together on Rat Tat Tat.

The record is full of standouts and excellent college radio cuts, among them the classic "Where's Your Patience, Dear?", "Howard Had a Hunch," "Skeleton Blues in B Flat Minor," and "She Kept Time to the Teardrops." All of these songs and more should become staples on college radio.

This is one of the two best records I've heard in 2000 (Macha Loved Bedhead, Bedhead Loved Macha is the other).

This is a great record. Matt Suggs nods to the rock pantheon while retaining the best elements of what made his work with Butterglory so great and so influential. Adults even like this album. If you like the better writing indie rockers or Village-Green era Kinks, or the mellow side of The Velvet Underground, this record will save your soul. His upcoming tour looks promising also. Buy Matt Suggs, tell your friends about Matt Suggs, and see Matt Suggs.

Ten years after GDBTE was released I finally hold it in my hands. Being from Visalia, CA this moment has been long awaited. I really don't know why it took me so long to get a hold of a copy, but in a sense I'm glad I waited. I feel as if I've opened some sort of time capsule containing riches that have only grown with value by the day. This album is a true gem, and I can't help but wonder why Matt Suggs wasn't more appreciated. If you are a fan of Nick Drake, Stephen Malkmus, or Jeff Mangum, buy this record immediately. I guarantee you'll have a new favorite musician.

This album takes a few listens to really sink in. Give it some time. Suggs' delivery does recall Ray Davies, but also Steve Malkmus or Silver Jews' Dave Berman at times, but his voice manages to be a distinctive instrument all its own. The perfect instrument to deliver his sometimes chilling, sometime beautiful ruminations on loss, dreams, love and betrayal. Admittedly, the lyrics at times are oblique--- maybe even opaque, but they always seem to make some kind of emotional sense even when they fail to make logical sense.

This album would have been just fine with a real stripped-down singer-songwriter feel. But Suggs' proves his sonic vision is as broad as his lyrically vision. This has to be one of indie pop's best-arranged album--- intricate mandolin work, bells, lap steel... yet it never sounds "retro". The genius of this record is that it makes ordinary folk-instrumentation seem fresh and alive. Just listen to the driving, fiercley-strummed accoustic on track #2 set against the complex, rootsy soundscape. It's all anchored in place by brilliantly understated strumming and some muddy yet inventive bass work.

Give this album a chance, it's really one of the smartest, most lovely albums in all of indie-dom.

For all you Butterglory fans out there - this is a special treat!

Ware's big, impolite tenor sax sound suggests alternately self-lacerating spiritual seeking and evangelical fury. If Ware is more listener-friendly on this CD, his message is no less diminished.