 SR-009 MATHEW SAWYER & THE GHOSTS- 'BLUE BIRDS BLOOD'....
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Now this is true core. Absolute heartland: the voice is soulful, cracked,
melancholy. The melodies are beautiful, full but certainly not overplayed-
a smattering of echoed backing harmonies here, a hand-splatter of
percussion there. The album cover is Xerox-style on a plain cardboard
sleeve, bagged. Second song in, the poignant to-the-max 'looking right
back at me' sounds pure prime subway sect…and you just know I'm going to
love that, Subway Sect being one of the three acts that make up the
boundaries of Truecore. (TV personalities and Patrick Fitzgerald are the
other two, in case you were wondering.) 'Don't Want To Hang Around',
meanwhile, is smart and soulful and self-deprecating and laden down by
literature and life, and filled with melodies so inflamed you just want to
hug them and tell them not to worry, everything's OK, you don't ever need
to be lonely again.. Wait. Where were we? Oh yeah. SO when Dan Treacy came out from hiding, or his prison ship, or wherever he was, Mathew was the person he got to fill the drum stool in the latest incarnation of TV Personalities…and, man, this album so recalls the glory days of the TVPs (um, that actually existed, now I think on it: being plagued by self- doubt and joke numbers and crap production) its genius. But, um, that's the great thing about having your own genre: you get to write your own rules and where in other genres such similarities could well matter, they almost certainly don't here. After all, there are so few of us around. 'Heartbreaker' boasts the best shouted-yet-tuneful female backing vocals this side of Wet Dog: 'Love Will Come To Town' plucks both on a mandolin and at your heart strings; 'When Death Walks In' puts me in mind of Nikki Sudden; 'Don't ever die Johnny' resonates in its loneliness, and.. Yeah. I love this record. EVERETT TRUE- PLAN B Oct 2007
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the enigmatic mathew sawyer is a man with many facets. he is an internationally respected visual artist, he's played drums for the influential post-punk band the television personalities, and he is the lead singer and songwriter with his own musical collective, mathew sawyer and the ghosts. 'blue birds blood' has a stunning depth and wistfulness. with sawyer's sauntering rasp as the charming cornerstone, this lo-fi pop paradise offers a proper candidate for some of the sweetest tunes heard yet this year. |
‘..fantastic…gloriously strange’ |
‘It has a simple, straightforward production, minimal instrumentation, and a heartbreakingly honest delivery, allowing Sawyer’s voice, and the essence of each song, to shine through, ‘Blue Birds Blood’ is almost certainly going to be my record of the year. I’ll be very surprised if another comes even close. |
Blue Birds Blood, a collection of songs notable for their exceptional willingness to just be songs, and nothing more. Aptly haunting and riddled with melancholy, almost every track on the album could, you feel, instantly qualify for 'classic' There was one song in particular that got at me, its stabbing chords reaching deep and twisting the knife, before the chorus comes along and pulls my ticker out through my ears anyway. I asked the girl standing next to me what it was and she told me it was called 'Heartbreaker' |
Matthew Sawyer and the Ghosts whose Modern Lovers-style bright pop chaos of ‘Heartbreaker’ contains a thrilling swirl of darkness. Stolen release the Blue Birds Blood album in September (it’s out on Catbird in the US now) and on the basis of this song I’m desperate to hear it now. |
"....All these words and I haven't even mentioned 'Dont Ever Die Johnny'...a travesty. Its stark, harrowing lilting makes for a song which is worth a million Coldplays or Snow Patrols, and could conceivably draw tears from St Paul's..Blue Birds Blood is a forgotten box of cobwebbed pop tinder, its songs waiting loyally for the noisy tumble of shrapnel through the rusted guts of old penny slot machines. Get it and treasure it" |
Matthew Sawyer, meanwhile, taps straight into the melancholy wellspring of Dan Treacy’s erratic and genius Television Personalities. . .so there's someone else destined for fame, clearly. |
Mathew Sawyer & The Ghosts gets with the zeitgeist and fuses Syd Barrett vocals with Arcade Fire style tuneful shouting (plus violins) and Jesus and Mary Chain-styled echo chamber drums. |
"This isn't someone who was affected by the music school of marketing. Sawyer is the real deal.. "Don't Ever Die Johnny" will not leave a dry eye in the room. Seriously sad tribute to a legend from a future legend. It doesn't get any better than this." |
Recent beneficiaries of Jarvis Cocker’s Meltdown imprimatur, The Ghosts are about to release their debut album on the always stylish Stolen label. We particularly like the poignant, damaged, Leonard Cohen-esque romanticism of Paris In The Spring. |
Initially, when popping in Blue Birds Blood by The Ghosts – also known as Mathew Sawyer & The Ghosts – one might automatically peg the album as off-kilter brit pop. Give it a few times, though and the lo-fi pop paradise Sawyer offers will rank as a proper candidate for some of the sweetest tunes heard yet this year.
Rolling in with a strong opener “Penny Falls,” the listener is faced with a stunning depth and wistfulness. With Sawyer’s sauntering rasp as the charming cornerstone of Blue Birds Blood, sparse marching band drums interlaced with echoed chimes and acoustics help set the album for success from the start. Changing pace with a hint of beach-pop influence, “Looking Right Back at Me” features howling background vocals – including one Calvin Johnson-esque warble and a few other high pitched squeaks for good measure – and a spirited ukelele rhythm section. Sporadic tambourine, haunting viola and strange noise additions on “Love Will Come To Town” strike a chord of nostalgia, something that loops through the album’s length.
From Sawyer’s lullabies tumble cheeky sentiments of devotion, as is the case with “Paris in the Spring.” Opening with the irresistible offer of “Paris in the spring, what a wonderful thing, in the spring / Would you like to go with me, darling? / To Paris in the spring?” the track continues with lyrics likely to make this little ditty perfect fit for anyone’s mix-tape for their dearest dear. Minimal and ethereal instrumentation wind the track along a graceful trail accompanied by endearing voice cracking, giving the flavor of classic love songs from The Magnetic Fields or saccharine vintage pop of The Lucksmiths.
Despite being driven by a lovelorn motor, some of Sawyer’s more up-tempo tracks like the protopunk influenced “Heartbreaker” and “Go Out On The Street” both feature shouted “Oh-oh-oh-oooooh”’s and raucous melody as compared to the album’s primary folk-fi glaze. Displaying hard-hitting tendencies rooted in his musical history – Sawyer was added to the lineup of recently re-united post-punk stalwarts Television Personalities in 2004 – these tracks prove that he is a jack of all trades.
By the time the album rolls to a close, pockets will be stuffed with melody provided by acoustic guitar, sparse yet poignant percussion and bursts of ukelele. On a wave of personal fulfillment, listeners can leave this experience with more than just a set of memorable pop tunes, buoyed by the discovery of a promising talent.URBAN POLLUTION