Categories : Music Reviews, Rock + Pop.
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Rating: 3.5/5 Released: July 31, 2007 Reviewer: David Coats |
Hospital Music could be described as the lowest of lows for Matthew Good. Written in the fall of 2006, as his marriage was falling apart, as he was hospitalized and diagnosed with bipolar disorder, as he was battling a dependency on anxiety medication, the record is an almost uncomfortably heartfelt window into his psyche at the time.
The moments where Good sounds defiant (“The trailer trash pedigree is calling / It rats you out when you’re down on all fours / Me I like to cast my death on yesterday / Cause what doesn’t kill us only makes us better whores”) are actually a great relief, because for much of the record he sounds so defeated it’s disconcerting (“I can’t write love songs when I’m on these things…It’s correctable, and they’re right you know / It’s all as easy as it sounds”). While playing most of the instruments, Good also produces the record himself, the first time in a decade that Warne Livesey hasn’t been in the producer’s chair; HM is full of signature Good techniques, such as the repeating “love is a strong word / I hate you†on nine-minute opener ‘Champions Of Nowhere.’ In conjunction with the more-catatonic-than-usual melodies, it’s impossible not to read something into Good’s psyche from that. Nonetheless, ‘Metal Airplanes,’ ‘The Boy Come Home,’ and Dead Kennedy’s cover ‘Moon Over Marin’ are all strong in their vulnerability.
Good’s relationship with Universal has soured in recent years. Comments from both sides have indicated for months that this, the option record on Good’s recording contract, would be his last for the label. Perhaps the record’s most sombre element is Good thanking long-time Universal A&R rep Dave Porter, for “fighting more than a few losing battles on my behalf.†The record’s most moving song is closer ‘True Love Will Find You In The End’; the song’s sonic smallness contrasts with the rest of the record in the same way that the song’s cautious grasp at optimism contrasts heartbreakingly with the rest of the record’s pessimism.
We can only speculate on what’s next for Good – but here’s hoping he can find some peace, and land on his feet on his own terms. Meantime, for whatever it’s worth, his legions aren’t going anywhere.
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