Meat & Potatoes Hard Rock Served Up Canadian Style
Peter Walenta | Long Island, New York USA | 06/21/2007
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Ah, well it may not be exactly new in Canada, but with the release in america on 00:02:59 Records (gotta love that name for a record label), we here south of the border finally can get to enjoy Matt Mays + El Torpedo! This guy rocks and one can hear very strong Full Moon Fever era Tom Petty and Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere era Neil Young influences. The cd's neat illustrated cover with the blonde in the car beckons one to get in for a ride down hard rock lane. "Cocaine Cowgirl" and "On the Hood" are stand out tunes in which Mays and band cruise through stories about young rebels and kids just out for a good time. Mays revs up the tempo considerably and to good effect on "Time of Your Life (Til Your're Dead)". This is a modern day classic hard rock album in an era when they seldom make listenable full length albums anymore. By all means if you haven't checked out Canadian rocker Matt Mays, for heavens sake get out there and buy his records!
My only complaint about the record is that Mays needs to develop his vocal delivery so that he sounds more like himself (meaning stretch out a bit) and less like Ryan Adams and the raspy-voiced pack of latter day rockers who pattern their singing after The Replacements' lead singer, Paul Westerberg. For better or worse as great an '80's rock band as the Mats were, Paul Westerberg could not sing his way out of a paper bag, and unfortunately his vocals ultimately detracted from so many truly great Replacements' post-punk and hard rock performances. Sloppy, raspy and flat vocals have a certain charm when singing about being wasted but they don't hold up for an entire album, and Mays does not possess that distinctive Southern nasally drawl that makes Tom Petty's performances so endearing. But such complaints are minor when the guitar playing and the songs are this good. If you like hard rock with lots of guitars drenched in fuzz tone, wah-wah, and reverb, get Matt Mays + El Torpedo. The U.S. release contains an added dvd with videos of three songs from the record including a blistering live version of "Time of Your Life (Til Your're Dead)", plus the acoustic tune "Downtown"...a nice package priced much less than the import version.
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Track Listings (13) - Disc #1