Matthew E White: Fresh Blood (Domino)
Premiered last Tuesday in New York in the company of a 30 piece orchestra, the Virginia-born singer-songwriter follows his acclaimed 2012 debut Big Inner with another slice of sumptuous white soul. A masterpiece of compositional restraint, it's lush and brassy in all the right places, spare when it needs to be and focusses mostly on White's rich baritone and elegant lyrics. Rock & Roll Is Cold is the album's only heavy roller, a Sweet Home Alabama-style riff with a barbed message delivered in a tempered whisper that sounds for all the world like Gerry Rafferty in his prime. Elsewhere it's late-night soul grooves which dominate, as on opener Take Care My Baby, though Tranquility gives a nod to White's sprawling avant jazz collective Fight The Big Bull with its changes of direction and discordant guitar squalls, and the understated Circle 'Round The Sun is a gospel-flavoured slow-burner laid on a bluesy piano underlay and spartan drum accompaniment. Imagine Al Green jamming with Lambchop after a couple of bottles of cough syrup. Yes, it's that good.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.Â
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.Â
That is invaluable.Â
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article