MATT STERN: WHAT YOU WANTED TO HEAR
It’s an easy pun to make, and I’m going to make it anyway: Montreal’s own Matt Stern’s third album is well worth hearing. What You Wanted to Hear features Stern’s trademark acoustic sound with a few uncanny little extras – bluesy brass courtesy of Heather Anderson on “Grateful” and “Keep You Here”, tender beatboxing – it is possible – by Michael Dyck on “Feel This Way” and delicate background vocals adding a little yin to Stern’s yang on the last three tracks.
This EP takes the universality of Stern’s message to a new level, transcending the tropes of queer or straight romance and making guitar-folk music that can be appreciated by just about anyone. The liquid smoothness of Stern’s voice and lyrics and that ubiquitous longing to heal the world through song carries a double dose of melancholy and optimism – it’s like a bowl of chicken soup for the soul, if you’ll pardon the literary theft, and definitely the perfect sound for the holiday season. As always the lyrics are incredibly poignant in their simplicity, penetrating the pervasive struggle to accept yourself and the one you love.
I can’t get over the duet with Brigitte Naggar on “From the Heart” or the piercing sun-drenched openness of “Prairie Girl”. Naggar’s delicate vocals are a perfect counterweight to Stern’s and the female presence underscores the ubiquity of the sentiment, “I don’t need you to be in love that hard/I just need to hear you speaking words that come right from the heart”. Who can’t identify with that?
“Prairie Girl”, meanwhile, just gets to me. It has my heart in a vice. The lyrics are delivered with the honesty and care we’ve come to expect of Matt Stern and lines like “Chipped tooth and endless eyes and roots unsown, she has to be a prairie girl” are just perfect. It has to be heard to be believed, as does Stern’s entire oeuvre thus far.
By Rebecca Hiscott
