Tuesday, September 17, 2019

CD Odyssey Disc 1300: Mattiel


I could have written this review last night, but I was enjoying the music so much I decided to prolong the experience for one more day.

Disc 1300 is… Satis Factory
Artist: Mattiel

Year of Release: 2019

What’s up with the Cover? This cover reminds me of a job I had one summer shoveling sawdust onto conveyor belts. Given the album title, I assume this factory processes raw adequacy for its legions of reasonably motivated consumers.

How I Came to Know It: The way I often discover modern music. First I read a review and was sufficiently intrigued to listen to the single. Once I liked the single, I listened to the whole album. Halfway through I knew I was hooked.

How It Stacks Up:  While I’m on the lookout for 2017’s “LP” for now “Satis Factory” is the only Mattiel record I have, so it can’t stack up.

Ratings: 5 stars

Leave ‘em wanting more. That’s what singer-songwriter Mattiel Brown does on one of the best records of 2019. She gives you 35 minutes of pure and perfect genre-bending rock and roll and then calls it a day, leaving you no choice but to go back to Track 1 and do it all over again. And that’s exactly what I did. Six times so far, and there’ll be more.

Like a lot of the best current crop of musicians, Mattiel is blissfully unaware of any restrictions she is expected to have on her sound. She mixes in soul, funk, eighties pop and hints of a thousand other elements, creating a sound that is unique to her. Imagine the early folksy groove of Michelle Shocked with later-career Clash. Maybe throw in some Blondie or Eurythmics. Basically, if you listen too long, you’ll get confused about just what you’re hearing but let me summarize – it’s Mattiel. And it’s sheer genius.

The experience begins with her vocals, which are deep, brassy with power to spare. This is a voice that fills a room with the triumph of a trumpet and the power of a kettle drum. It isn’t just power, either. Mattiel reminded me of a modern-day Annie Lennox, taking songs that could be overwhelmed with their own anthemic majesty, and then singing them in a way that lets you ride the wave back down the barrel to its vulnerable core.

It is a good thing Mattiel has that kind of power, because the songs she writes are brash and bold anthems that demand a full commitment from the first note. They get to the point in a hurry as well. The album is 12 songs and only 35 minutes long, with over half the songs under three minutes. Mattiel doesn’t go in for a lot of bridges or meandering instrumentals. She hits a riff, develops it, drops a few insightful lyrics and wraps it up. This music reminded me of the food in Italy: only 2 or 3 ingredients, but perfectly portioned and prepared every time.

Unsurprisingly, with so many stylistic elements, “Satis Factory” has incredible range. There is plenty of R&B inspired rock, including “Moment of Death” and “Rescue You,” but there are also elements of spoken word (“Food for Thought”), eighties pop anthems (“Keep the Change”) and even country beats (“Blisters”). “Heck Fire” has a pop-reggae groove that sounds like it could have been lifted from Combat Rock but…nope. It is all original, it just sounds timeless. Even the use of the archaic “heck” comes off sounding more modern than any casual swear you’ll hear in modern music.

I had a hard time picking favourites (one of the reasons the album earned 5 stars), but “Millionaire” was a winner. It holds a mix of wistfulness and uncertain triumph that summed up the emotional core of the album. Mattiel doesn’t sing about perfection, but she is perfectly happy to celebrate a world with plenty of faults. Reflecting her own path to self-fulfillment, she sings:

“Took a hundred years to get this microphone
Now I wanna sell everything I own
Ever since I got myself this easy chair
Might as well be a millionaire.”

The song literally made me appreciate sitting. I know its not about that, but still.

Long Division” ends the album with less certainty, with a riposte of realism to the trite advice that so often falls short in the face of misfortune:

“And we all were taught to plan for the worst
As if we had a chance to rehearse
And we all were taught to give respect
As if we could avoid a disconnect.”

The production on “Satis Factory” is crisp and separated. Drum and bass feature heavily but the album wisely doesn’t have them thump and everything is kept even in the mix, letting the bones of the song – and Mattiel’s voice – work their magic. Italian cooking, with sound.

Best tracks: All tracks. Sadly, there are only 12 but that’s OK, you can replay it any time you like if you buy it. Now go buy it. Seriously. Go give this woman some more money so she can make another record.

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