Matt Harding - 'Commitment' (Moshi Moshi)
3/5
By: Thomas Hannan
Much as it would be convenient to do so, there's something quite endearing about how difficult it is to pin this Matt Harding chap down. The singer/songwriter tag isn't always applicable, doused as this record is in calm, Velvets-like instrumentals such as the wonderful 'Flint'. No more fitting is the 'ambitious newcomer' label, this being his second record to date. It's folk, it's got bleep after bleep of electronic pop music, and it's sleepy without ever making you want to yawn. Whatever it is, it's really quite something.
If any of these tracks had been placed first in the running order, it would change the view you keep of Matt Harding throughout the record substantially. As it is, with the calm beauty of the Badly Drawn Boy-bettering 'What I Meant To Say' kicking the game off, you'll have the one man and his trusty guitar picture in your head for most of 'Commitment'. You can make it fit to most of what's going on, but far from one to be categorised, Matt comes out looking like one of the squarest pegs to ever find itself in a round hole.
No bad thing, that. This is after all probably one of the first folk guitar records you could ever compare to Cornelius, little drum-machines and synthesised pop meanderings cropping up every which way. His songs are often incredibly bare, as if all the instruments are playing many miles away from you and all you're getting are the sweet whispers - a guitar wanders here, a lyric or two flutters about elsewhere (check 'You've Been Here Before').
It's varied, indeed - the indescribably twee 'Sugar Water' could be a baby's music box if put together by Mogwai, the whistles on an all too short 'Positive' oh so very Nick Drake. A wide base then, but one thing it never quite manages is to tap into the collective heart and really say something. It's a world where everything appears in soft pastels and people only communicate by slight facial expressions, almost as if you're left to fill in your own gaps. It veers dangerously close to background music at times, the so slight it's almost not there 'Come My Way' for example, and really, what actually is the point in background music? Isn't it just music you don't actually want to listen to?
Thankfully, nothing here ever falls in to quite that state of disrepair. There's enough on 'Commitment' to ensure that if it has been given a spin purely for atmospheric purposes, something about it sooner or later (and we'll put our money on it likely being the echo-smattered weirdness of 'Afternoons In December') will give you a tap on the shoulder and remind you to pay attention. By in large, it's wonderful, flawed mainly by its limitations and paltry portions of anything with real, poignant substance. It doesn't contain answers, just a comforting smile to guide you on your path. Only a fool would look away.
Artists in this article: Matt Harding
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