Review Summary: the Canadian alt-rock god puts down his guitar...kinda
This is my mom's favourite album of 2011. Every time I came home over the past year, it would always be playing in our house. Like, always. That's how awesome my mom is (her second favourite was the Foo Fighters album, which I'd say is still pretty damn respectable). I'd get annoyed by the fact that this is all she ever listens to if it weren't for the fact that this album is really, really good. I don't know how she does it though; this album packs such an emotional wallop that I can only ever listen to it every now and then. She must have nerves of steel...surely a side effect of having to put up with me for like 18 years. Anyways, enough about my mom.
Matt Good's fifth solo effort, and ninth overall if you include his beginnings with the Matthew Good Band, is definitely his least commercial release thus far. Most people remember Good from the radio: MGB was pretty big in the alt-rock scene in Canada in the late 90s-early 00s, and Hello Time Bomb actually had some success in the States. That Matt Good doesn't really make an appearance on this album; I'm not saying he's gone, the man kinda floats from persona to persona, but he's just not here right now. Instead we have something that's been hinted at before but never fully realized until now: a man making music because he knows he's really good at it, not because he has to make a living somehow. He's reached a point in his career where it doesn't really matter how he charts, his fanbase is big and loyal enough to support him, no matter what he decides to do. Just as long as it doesn't suck. And this definitely doesn't suck. I'd go so far as to say its his best release, but I'm biased towards experimentation, and Avalanche and Hospital Music are also classics so it's hard to say for sure.
In Lights of Endangered Species, Good completes his transition from the role of 'alt-rock god' to...well, it's hard to say. Going through the album track by track, you can see how varied it is. Opener Extraordinary Fades is led by a seriously stark drum and minimal orchestral flourishes, How It Goes is an acoustic ditty that reaches new heights by an oh-so-sweet flute melody, which then goes into Shallow's Low, a smoky, almost jazzy track where Good's signature electric guitar finally makes an appearance. It sticks around for the following track, What If I Can't See The Stars Mildred?, and then disappears again for the rest of the album. The fact that the guitar, once a staple of Good's, has such a small role on this album, is a testament to just how versatile of a songwriter he is. Check out the next track, Zero Orchestra, which is filled with such brassy, big band swagger that it threatens to derail the somber tone of the album.
However, the emotional centerpiece of the album, Non Populus, more than evens this out. This is easily one of the saddest songs I've heard in a long time, and its hard to pin down why. That's part of the genius of this album; he doesn't ever really say much, but the emotion portrayed through the music is more powerful than anything he, or anyone, could say anyway. If you don't get shivers during the quiet, almost whispered bridge of Non Populus, you're seriously a ***ing robot. The next song, In A Place Of Lesser Men, was so obviously made to please record execs that its almost funny. Normally such a song would take away from an album like this, but its so self aware that it works. The last two songs on the album, Set Me On Fire and the title track, are the perfect way to finish things off. Set Me On Fire is an intense, acoustic slow burner that builds up into something very powerful, and Lights of Endangered Species closes the album by bringing all of its elements together. Altogether, like I've said, the album is a very moving experience that can overwhelm you if you aren't ready for it. At the too-ripe age of 40, Matt Good is still making music with the emotionality and creativity of a 20 year old, yet has the power of maturity on his side to hold everything together. You're a legend now, Matt. You can brighten up a little bit.
