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Album Details

• Artist: Matt Nathanson
• Album: Beneath These Fireworks
• Label: Acrobat/Cherry/Universal
• Year of Release: 2003
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: dscanland on 2004-01-20

Matt Nathanson isn't new to this rock and roll thing. He has been plugging away releasing this, his sixth album with the added boost of having Universal dollars behind it. We'll have to see if the added finances and clout of a major label can do it for the talented singer/songwriter. I haven't heard of Matt before this album so I can't make production comparisons but Beneath These Fireworks does have a big sound to it. It starts off relatively minor with the short "Angel" but quickly gets into the swing of things with "Suspended". It's tracks like "Sad Songs" that have the potential of hitting hard on AOR radio if given to the right person. One song, "Curve Of The Earth" Matt sounds so much like Ryan Adams that it is eerie. When you go back and listen to the album a second time you start to see a bit of a similarity between the two, less the twang. Now that I have Ryan Adams in my head I start to think of his prodigy, Jesse Malin as well. Sometimes it seems like the production gets out of hand and is more of a priority than the song itself like "I Saw". So while some of the songs on his Universal debut hit the mark, Beneath These Fireworks doesn't shoot rockets for me. He is a great songwriter but may need to be a bit choosier about his production and what songs to drop from his albums. "Sing Me Sweet" is indeed one of those songs.

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