Matt Duncan: Soft Times (2013)
Matt Duncan, who calls himself “the Elvis of self-doubt”, is a purveyor of tuneful soft rock that sounds like it ought to be playing from an AM transistor radio.
In a good way.
Lots of contemporary artists are touted for their retro 70’s sound. Seldom does their music actually summon the aura of that decade.
Yacht rock mostly-tribute band Yacht Rock Revue released an excellent album of all original material a few years back, but to this listener’s ears the aptly titled Soft Times captures the 70’s feel in a more authentic way.
Maybe the secret is to not try too hard. Duncan acknowledges his first LP Beacon lived in the 60’s, and that his sound moved onward one decade for this, his second.
But while he cites Steely Dan and Joni Mitchell among others as influences, it certainly does not sound like he mimics particular artists, songs or sounds. He just goes about tastefully arranging songs with Van Morrison-esque horns here, scratch rhythm guitar there, soulful violins, harmonies and an overall gloss and sophistication.
And Duncan is astute enough to vary those arrangements from song to song across the record.
Barbed lyric lines keep it interesting, jutting out as they do from smooth beds of sound.
One might call this lightweight stuff, but so were Hall & Oates after 1980. Not everything has to be “Kashmir”.
At least Duncan’s soft rock is more evocative than derivative. From that standpoint it has more merit than, say, Greta Van Fleet.
Soft Times feels like a pleasant escape back to 1977 and a brief respite from our own hard times.
Listen to: “The Keys”
Listen to: “Rube Goldberg Machine”
Listen to: “Soft Times”
Listen to: “I Don’t Know”
Listen to: “Idle Hands”
Listen to: “Lone Ranger”
Listen to:
Every Moment Has A Song 