If you’re curious about why Matt Ward would pick this particular song (from an album that sounds like it’s got a lot of great songs) as the first promo MP3, consider the fact that it features Zooey Deschanel. She’s got all the great She & Him buzz. And also all the great I’m marrying Death Cab For Cutie buzz. So much buzz! So of course the blogosphere will eat this track up. For those reasons, but also because it’s just a solid primer on what M. does well: fuzzy and shuffling blues-bar guitars, char-burned vocals singing love lines in that down-home and retro sorta way, and a full plate of throwback in the pianos, the Mike Mogis production, the AM golden backing vocals. It’s an upper, it’s your first MP3 from Hold Time. It’s here:
Hold Time is out 2/17 via Merge. Don’t forget about that title track video. It’s purty.
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too bad you guys can’t give away the whole record
Grover – if you toggel over to wild safari music blog you can download the whole album….cheeeeeers!
This is a good song. It is very nice to hear Matt singing again. Zooey is effectively and not overly used. I am more of an album listener, so I look forward to hearing how this album will work as a whole. Even Transistor Radio, which I consider a good album rather than a great one, deserves to be listened to from start to finish. I hope this new album can be compared to Post-War, which was absolutely terrific. Thanks for posting the song.
Hold Time is streaming at npr.org. very good stuff. If you like post war i think you’ll be quite pleased. and yes, m ward’s albums are always best appreciated as a whole.
Great song and Zooey adds to it kinda the way Neko adds to “To Go Home”.
He’s easily one of the best blues singers going, perfect phrasing; just like rick astley and soul music
as usual, great song from Matt
if i were to have heard the whole album, i would say it is the best of his work yet. by far.
signed,
afraid of RIAA.
It would actually be perfectly logical for you to have heard the whole album, as it’s streaming for free on our website.
signed,
NPR
snooze attack
Would it still be super cool to call Hold Time (that I will admit right here and now I of course have not heard) the BEST ALBUM OF 2009?
Coz I think that would so super cool.
I posted earlier about my appreciation for each of M.Ward’s albums as a whole, and I am now about halfway through listening to Hold Time on NPR’s website. This is an outstanding album so far. I am unsurprisingly surprised by the quality of his latest work.
What is it about M. Ward that brings out such mild mannered, sensible reactions in the comments section?
The music is nothing special, so only boring people respond?
Oh, the new record is so lovely. He never ceases to amaze me. And can I just add, I love Zooey so much. She’s perfect!
It is nice, isn’t it? M Ward even makes talkback better. Is there nothing he can’t do?
The man puts thought into every measure of each song, in every tone. He just doesn’t go into the studio with fingers crossed, record the noise, and call it art. Like what I’m seeing with a lot of indie bands today.
forgettable, harmless, vanilla mediocrity at its finest.
AMEN! Couldn’t agree more.
I found it enjoyable, mild but enjoyable
solid song and all, but the drums seem straight out of jock jams or my old high school’s basketball pep rallies