Scott Matthew
There Is An Ocean That Divides And With My Longing I Can Charge It With A Voltage That’s So Violent To Cross It Could Mean Death
Available now
Defend Music/Ryko

by Justin Valmassoi

“I know you’re not the only one. You’re the only one with a knife,” sings Williamsburg-via-Australia balladeer Scott Matthew on the opening track from his recently released second LP There Is An Ocean That Divides And With My Longing I Can Charge It With A Voltage That’s So Violent To Cross It Could Mean Death.

Don’t let the Fiona-Apple-esque title mislead you. Matthew is not a long-winded songwriter. Most of his haunting, affected passages clock in under the four minute mark and contain less than a hundred words.* It is those carefully chosen words which make him a man worth keeping track of. His sparse and meticulous instrumentation, comprised of ukulele, piano, cello and brass frame the lyrics, while his breathy and easily recognizable delivery give them shape and weight.

Somehow finding himself in the odd position of being much more widely recognized/respected outside of the U.S., Matthew is, at home, probably best known for providing the bulk of the soundtrack and an on-screen performance or two in John Cameron Mitchell’s sexually-themed Shortbus. It was Justin Bond’s megaphone and marching band trumped-up version of Matthew’s ‘In The End’ that brought the film to its rousing conclusion. With that notable exception, Matthew’s talents have been almost universally overlooked here in the states, despite his being a fixture in the Brooklyn music scene.

Perhaps it’s because his sound is so difficult to pin down. He’s a balladeer, primarily, citing Cat Power’s Covers Record tour as an influence. Unafraid to expel tidal breath in his delivery, and brimming with a kind of playful sensitivity, Matthew manages to make lines like “To ask is selfish of me, but when you leave my company do you sometimes feel like an amputee? If yes, please write Yes on my ceiling” both ingenuous and exigent. The bulk of the new album was written on the ukelele as a result of a mugging that left one of his fingers permanently damaged (the ukelele being easier to play than guitar), which adds to the difficulty in describing his sound. There isn’t exactly a wellspring of ukulele-based bands to use as a comparison. Regardless, from that base his band builds moody midtempo arrangements, sometimes whisper-quiet and weighty, other times buoyant or triumphant as necessary. Sometimes they are barely felt at all, allowing his more intimate folk stylings the necessary room to breathe. Previous tourmate Holly Miranda lends her vocal talents to ‘Dog,’ while NYC mainstay Kevin Devine handles guitar and backing vocals for the majority of the LP. Pianist Marisol Limon Martinez is the most constant accompaniment, also lending her whispered vocals to the title track to great effect.

It is almost telling that the singer’s moment of movie stardom was spent performing slow, plaintive ballads to a rapt and silent audience in a sexual speakeasy, one room over from what could only be called an orgy. What should have been incongruous instead made sense upon the realization that the man’s music cannot be pigeonholed to fit a mood or venue, and seems as natural being played on a Parisian streetcorner as it does drifting from the radio by your bathtub or spellbinding sexual deviants in a Brooklyn loft.

Scott Matthew is primarily a gifted singer/songwriter, imbuing everything from orchestral string arrangements to near-acapella passages with humility and depth. His words and voice deserve a far larger American audience, and hopefully with the release of this new LP, they will finally find him.

* Beyonce’s ‘Single Ladies’ has over 250, if that puts it in some sort of perspective.