Album Review: The Tallest Man On Earth-Dark Bird Is Home

The Bird Has Flown Away

The Tallest Man On Earth
Dark Bird Is Home
6.7/10

Kristian Matsson is such an underrated songwriter. Throughout the years, he has been pounding out sentimental acoustic songs that really pull at the listener's heart strings. Matsson's slight accent and his just overall simplicity made him feel so human and real in comparison to many folk artists today. A lot of other folk artists kind of rely on hokey gimmicks that kind of get dry, but Matsson's emotion and charm has continually wooed me during his reign. That being said, Matsson has been moving away from what made him so great, and that truly bums me out. There's No Leaving Now, his last album, was more produced and less solid lyrically than his past effort: The Wild Hunt. This album was not bad by any means, but it seemed like Matsson's inspiration for this type of music was simply fading. He did not seem as passionate or frightening as he was in his previous efforts, and at the time I thought a sound change could be necessary. So now we have the follow up, and boy do we get a change in pace. The whole thing just sounds like a completely different artist, but is that necessarily a good thing? I'm really not sure. There is a lot to like on here, but there are definitely some awful things happening as well. Overall, this record is either a tremendous misstep by Matsson or it is the beginning of a sound that merely needs some time. Only time will tell on that department, but for now lets just talk about The Dark Bird Is Home. 

The first thing that needs to be said about this album is that the emotion is there. Matsson is very passionate, and you can hear the pain in his voice. Matsson wrote this record after a nasty break up, and I am glad to see that he was able to channel his energy in a good way. While this record is more emotional than the last one, it is also even more produced. The lack of production on the first couple Tallest Man releases was really charming. It really felt like someone was in the room with you, and it felt like your little secret. This record's production really takes away a lot of the sentimental value away from the songs. A lot of the emotion I mentioned above feels more artificial as a result of the production. Still, you wonder at this point of Matsson's career if we will ever hear another record as under-produced as the first couple: probably not. Although the production might be flawed, some new things on this record feel really fresh. Most Tallest Man songs are pretty stripped back arangements, but on this record we see a lot more instrumentation. Sagres brings in horns, woodblocks, and strings and it really provides a spark in the listener's ear. Some of the added instrumentation really helps out the closer as well. The atmostphere created in the last 50 seconds of The Dark Bird Is Home is far more advanced than anything Matsson has ever done. These final seconds also include horns, and they really create a very bittersweet mood to the piece. In what seems to be a very bittersweet effort, I find that more than appropriate. The record starts out really strong with 3 of the first 5 tracks being great. Fields Of Our Home is so painful and relatable. The lyrics often deal with disrespect that comes with a break up. Matsson throws his heart at you here, and honestly this track really feels like a logical progression for Kristian. It makes sense, and boy does it sound good. At times this track can drag along, but I think it is still very beautiful and very haunting. Little Nowhere Towns is a piano led diddy that shines above most cuts on this album. This track gives the listener something closer to the first albums, much like Kids On The Run. The piano is a new timbre for the most part in his songs, so it is also refreshing to see it utilized well. I also really like the lyrics on here. They deal with the inevitablity of leaving your home. Often you can feel like you spent such a long time somewhere just to get nowhere. It's quite a chilling song. Singers is another great song with a really simple structure. Just pretty charming folk music that is hard not to like. The back half is a lot weaker. While Sagres has some great instrumentation that is pretty promising, it also fails to progress enough on its original ideas. It is an interesting song, but I feel like Matsson wrote half a song and just kind of extended it. Timothy also just makes me feel absolutely nothing. This track just is kind of annoying, and unnecessary to me. The shout chorus is really cheesy and the whole thing is pretty repetitive. These issues make it hard for the song to strike any sort of emotional chord. Beginners is a pretty nice song, but I have to say it is pretty forgettable. I think that it is possibly the closest thing to an early Tallest Man song on here, but it really fails to capture that spark he once had. Seventeen suffers from all the same issues Timothy does. It is really lousy and just simply feels generic. It fails to make any emotional impact because it does not really do anything different from its first 30 seconds. This song also actually seems poorly mixed to me. The guitars can kind of drape over the vocals sometimes, and Matsson's lyrics are always the best parts of Tallest Man songs. As mentioned above, the closer is absolutely gorgeous. The "folk-drop" at the end can be cheesy for sure, but the atmospheres presented are pretty amazing, so that doesn't bug me. Also the track before that drop is pretty solid. It is possibly the most human at peace Matsson feels all album, and how appropriate that he ends on a bang. Overall, this album has plenty of issues such as, bad tracks, production errors, and unfinished work, but Matsson can still win me over a good percentage of the time. There are plenty of good ideas for every Darkness of The Dream, and that is pretty encouraging. But just a couple years ago the idea of Matsson making a song like Darkness Of The Dream would be maddening. The thing about this album is that while it does see some new ideas come to success, it also has some vital flaws. One huge flaw is that it has no cohesion. The album is supposed to be this sad break up record, but none of the songs really match up thematically and that really hurts the effectiveness of this record. This is either Matsson's first step in a grand reveal for a new sound, or the man is simply just running his project into the ground, and sadly I think the latter is more accurate.

I'll say this again: this album is not bad at all. I think, indeed, some of its best moments are undeniably some of Matsson's best moments yet, but some of these tracks drag on and really don't fit together. The over production and the lack of focus seem to kind of just accumulate to a scattered project that had a lot more potential than result. Regardless of this albums failures, I cannot deny that there is still something unique about Kristian, but I'm just afraid that this line is being drawn thinner every record. I have to say that Dark Bird takes a valiant effort in trying to expand his palette, but in the end it comes up short, and makes Matsson seem like an amateur  at times. Sadly, this was not a redeeming record for me, but I am sure it was for Matsson himself. He finally feels right at home, and who am I to judge?

Best Songs: Fields Of Our Home, Singers, Little Nowhere Towns, Beginners, Dark Bird Is Home
Worst Songs: Darkness Of The Dream, Slow Dance, Timothy, Sagres, Seventeen