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Album Details

• Artist: Matt Marka
• Album: Goodbye Gracious
• Label: PAW
• Year of Release: 2003
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: dscanland on 2004-02-03

I think it's interesting when artists feel that they can do everything on a record. What has Matthew Sweet started? On Goodbye Gracious, Minneapolis based singer/songwriter Matt Marka takes on pretty much all duties except for drums, taken on by his longtime friend Mike Koch. He even has done the unthinkable by producing the album himself with a couple friends. So without even critiquing the songs themselves, the production is very muddy. It's really too bad because the songs are great and the CD packaging is well done. Anyway, I hope Marka learns a lesson from this. Like I said, the songs are well written and quite original. The album opens with a blues romp called "Skin Skeleton" and then moves into what the listener should expect for pretty much the rest of the album. His voice reminds me somewhat of Bob Mould; a little nasally but very upbeat and sunny. In fact I do hear a lot of Mould's influence on tracks like "Just A Touch". "Ex-Anything" sounds like a local talent, Brent Tyler. On his bio he states that this music was created while falling in love while coping with the death of his dad and grandfather. Matt's got great songwriting, now he needs to get a great band behind him.

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