This was the final album before Matthew Good Band split up and went their separate ways. After their 1999 mega-hit "Beautiful Midnight" with 4 hit singles (Load Me Up, Hello Time Bomb, Strange Days, and The Future Is X-Rated) Matthew Good left the band for a while and wrote the songs for "The Audio Of Being" by himself in a hotel room. When he returned, the band recorded the album, but split up in the middle of the making of the album, forcing Matthew Good to finish the album on his own.
This is said to be Matthew Good Band's heaviest album, indeed sporting multiple hard rock thrillers as well hailed to be their best work by the majority of fans, although not as huge of a seller as "Beautiful Midnight" and not 1 of the 2 singles from the album (Carmelina and Anti-Pop) were featured on Matthew Good's 2005 Greatest Hits package "In A Coma", but smartly recorded 3 songs in acoustic for the deluxe edition of "In A Coma", (Tripoli, Truffle Pigs and Advertising On Police Cars.)
The album takes you through a number of styles, and like I mentioned above, the majority of the songs and overall feel of the album being harder. The album starts off with a great opening track "Man Of Action" featuring various symphony parts and a powerful chorus with alternative guitar and lenghtened vocals. The album keeps it's heavy feel for the next 2 tracks with the hit single "Carmelina", a fast, riff-built song, arguably the heaviest song on the album. Track 3, "Tripoli" is as well a heavy song but sports a very dark and mysterious feel to it. The song also steps it down in speed, providing the listener with a great transition from fast and heavy to the next set of songs which are slow and soft.
The soft sequence of the album starts off with my favourite track off the album, "Advertising On Police Cars". The song includes effected guitar, giving the song a mystical song. The lyrics are not his best, but still show off an ability to write meaningful metaphors. The vocals are definately some of his best, and we are re-introduced to some piano and symphony parts. Track 5, "I, The Throw Away" may not instantly appeal to the listener, but can definately grow on you. The acoustic guitar riff featured throughout the song stands out and really attracts you to the song. The lyrics are very well written and we hear more symphony bits at the end of the song, making for a great outro. The next song, "Truffle Pigs" gets the album going again, with a feel much like that of "Tripoli". It starts with acoustic guitar chords, but not as well-done vocals. The song definately picks itself up once the other isntruments come in, but just doesn't match the quality of music of the rest of the album.
We now go through a mix of the 2 main styles for the last half of the album, and then hear a few that balance the 2 styles. Track 7, "The Fall Of Man" returns to the album's heavier side, being much like the opener, "Man Of Action" with a heavy chorus and deep verses. For the next song we then change gears quite a bit. "Under The Influence" features a more modern mainstream sound with catchy drums and a nice strong chorus. We quickly slow down again with "The Rat Who Would Be King". Matthew Good shows off extended vocal notes backed by a sad-sounding guitar riff and a subtle drum beat, giving the song more of a serious feel, this is another that doesn't catch your attention at first but can grow on you if not.
From here on in the album completely goes in a more lighter and poppier direction than the rest of the album, but still keeps you going with it. Track 10, "Anti-Pop" is a song that you would recognize as something that you would hear multiple times per day on your local mainstream radio station. Generall a fan favourite, this song does not appeal to me as much. Most of the instruments and vocals are effected in some way and the lyrics are modern and not thoughtful. We then go into a song called "The Workers Sing A Song Of Mass Production". This song is highly similar to "Under Thr Influence" in many ways, with a similar drum beat but does make a point of showing off the bass more and the guitar a little less, but effects the vocals as well. The chorus is the basic climax of the song with agressive vocals and alternative guitar chords, which were proceeded by a "decieving" poppy pre-chorus. We then get to track 12, the album closer, "Sort Of A Protest Song". This is a good way to end the album with great sounding melodic guitar, drums and vocals put together very well. The chorus is in the same style as the verse but heightened in sound. The middle of the song re-attracts your attention as well with driving guitar backed by a symphony. Throughout the rest of the song we hear a vocal break and various symphony instruments fitted well with the song.
Overall, this was an amazing album, I definately agree with most that it is Matt Good's best and heaviest. It gets 4.5, great variety in songs throughout, reasonably ordered, good lyrics, just a couple songs that aren't to the ability of the album. If you like the band or Matthew Good pick this up as soon as possible, if not you should try downloading 1 of the 12 songs I talked about (preferably 1 of the 2 singles or "The Fall Of Man" which is 1 of the best and sports the qualities of the album.)
