Matthew Good Band – Last of the Ghetto Astronauts
I’ve chosen to review today one of my all time favourite albums, and one which has been a constant fixture in my CD Player, then computer, now iPod for years. Naturally with an introductory sentence like that, it’s going to be a positive review, but hopefully it won’t prove to be too boring.
First, a little background. I bought this album almost by accident about 6 years ago. I had heard the singles from the MGB’s big album Beautiful Midnight a couple years earlier, as had almost any Canadian who listened to rock radio at the time, and I had gone out and picked the album up. At the time, it didn’t really click for me, and I kind of forgot about it aside from those aforementioned singles. When the band released their next (and last) album, The Audio of Being, I heard one of the new singles from that and I returned to Beautiful Midnight. This time, I was blown away, and I immediately set out to buy more from the band. As I was about to go on a 3 week road trip at the time, I thought I’d get the album before the one I had and the one after it. Imagine my surprise when I get to the store and see that the band’s first album is on sale for something like half price, and I naturally picked it up as well. It took me a while to get to this one, since I picked it up as an afterthought, but the first time I heard the track “Symbolistic White Walls” I was hooked.
Those familiar only with the band’s later work will find themselves with a drastically different album in LotGA, as it offers little of the melancholy ballads and harder rockers the MGB became famous for. Really, this early incarnation of the “band” was just Matthew Good with some backup players, and the sound is that of a young songwriter still finding his way. There is a lot of different influences to the album, from an early (this album was released in 1995) form of a sort of indie rock sound on opener “Alabama Motel Room,” to a distinct bluesy feel on follow up “Symbolistic White Walls.” There’s folk influences throughout, as that’s how Good started his career, and there’s an early foreshadowing of his later epic length tracks that have become common on his solo albums, in penultimate track “The War is Over.”
I suppose I should clarify something in that last paragraph, obviously the album itself was an independent record, recorded and released by Good [side note: LotGA went on to become the most successful independent record ever released in Canada] so when I say indie rock I of course mean the genre.
Of course since this was the most recent in a series of fairly low-fi recordings released by Good and the band, there is very little studio chicaneries. The guitars don’t sound very full, the bass is sometimes a little less noticeable, and the vocals are a little fuzzy at times, but to me this is all a part of the album’s charm. I should also point out that at times the lyrics are extremely good, and it contains what I think is my favourite Good line yet penned, from the fourth track on the album, “Native Son,” which goes: ”Can you spare me a quarter/Though I have no one to call/I just thought it might save my ass one day/If the sky or the free world were to fall”
Despite greatly enjoying the work of the later Matthew Good Band, I never really considered myself a true fan until I heard this album. Despite its flaws and obvious problems with recording quality, it is a truly great album that showcases many of the traits that would later make Matthew Good a major figure in the Canadian rock scene. Admittedly I have some bias when listening to this record, as I have so many great memories attached to the music now, but there are few flaws that I can really find in it. If a sort of folksy, bluesy based rock sound appeals to you, do yourself a favour and pick the album up. I sincerely doubt you’ll be disappointed.
8.5/10
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