Album Review :: Matthew And The Atlas - Other Rivers

Matthew And The Atlas

Other Rivers

April 14 2014 (Communion)

6.5/10

Words: Andy Runacres

Love them or loathe them, the huge success of Mumford & Sons has once again opened the industry's eyes and ears to the commercial possibilities of folk music, allowing a number of new artists to break through.

On the showing of their debut album 'Other Rivers', Matthew and the Atlas (the working alias of Aldershot’s Matt Hegarty) has the possibility of being the next one. It is not only their musical genre that Matthew and the Atlas has in common with Mumford & Sons, they also come from Communion, an artist led organisation and now record label founded by Mumford’s Ben Lovett, ana a label that has a good track record having launched early singles from artists like Nathaniel Rateliff, Ben Howard, Michael Kiwanuka and Daughter.

Whether it is a conscious attempt to escape the Mumford shadow or a desire to move on to a new level, for this their debut album, Matthew and the Atlas have ditched their early trad folk sound and beefed up the banjo and guitar with electronic sounds and beats, and to my ears it is all the better for it.

Opener 'Into Gold' starts gently giving plenty of prominence to Hegarty’s world-weary voice - which has much in common with the likes of Ray La Montagne - before building steadily to a big finish. Lead single 'Pale Sun Rose' comes next, telling its story of a man’s ruminations on how his life could have been different. The story is backed with wonderful jittery beats and is driven along on an insistent banjo riff, one that will lock itself into your brain after a few listens. The song also features the theme of nature and outdoor life, a theme that is constant throughout the album, which is maybe not surprising considering Hegarty’s previous day job as a landscape gardener.

The pace slows for a while before another of the album's highlights 'Counting Paths' kicks in. The song with its opening percussion, violin squeals and backing vocals has a real Other Lives feel to it. 'Nowhere Now' describes his lack of religious faith but a desire to have a belief of some kind, that things will improve. 'A Memory Of You' drifts along pleasantly enough, but ultimately proves unsatisfying, but the last two tracks, 'Old Ceremony' and closer 'Another Day' (featuring backing vocals from Communion label mate Matt Corby) get things back on track with keen melodies and strong songwriting to the fore.

'Other Rivers' misses the target in places and can at first seem quite samey or indeed, formulaic, in the way the songs build. But this is an album that needs time to really reveal itself, and if you give it that time you will be rewarded. It certainly marks out Matthew and the Atlas as ones to watch, and with some fine tuning, their development from this promising starting point could be very interesting indeed.