Matt & Kim -- New Glow

Recently there has been a swath of indie bands that have taken on a sort of happy-go-lucky mentality with each of their albums. Artists like Best Coast, Purity Ring, and Of Montreal have all released album after album of the brightest and lightest tunes one could imagine. Within this group lies indie pop duo Matt & Kim. Formed in 2004, Matt & Kim are the husband and wife duo of Matt Johnson and Kim Schifino. They already have 3 studio albums to their name since they formed, and "New Glow" is their fourth release to date. Matt & Kim are probably most famous for their song "Daylight", which has been featured in many commercials and movies. I have no real personal connection to this album, but there were no big releases this week, so I chose to review "New Glow" since I've heard of Matt & Kim before.

Let me start off by saying that this is probably the most cheerful record I have ever listened to. Matt has a very bright color to his voice that could probably make birds chirp and babies laugh. This voicing helps develop the cheery mood of the album very well. In fact, it seems like every little aspect of this album is meant to prove how happy these two are with their lives. They keys are mostly played in a very chordal manner, with Matt banging on the keyboard with all of his joyous might. The synthesizers buzz with melody and harmony, mirroring the singer's cutting voice. In fact, I don't remember hearing a single song off this album in a minor key. As well as being happy, this music was made for dancing. While this technically can be accomplished, the songs aren't really varied enough for a Matt & Kim to be very interesting.

Coming in at only 27 minutes, this is a very brief record. In fact, when it was over, I had to triple-check to make sure the music didn't stop itself somehow. Yet, even though it isn't even thirty minutes long, it feels like Matt & Kim ran out of material halfway through writing this record. Most, if not all songs on "New Glow" sound exactly the same. If you played one of the songs for me, waited ten minutes, and then played a different one, I would not be able to tell the difference. In fact, none of the songs stand out to me at all, and I do not remember what any of them sound like maybe 30 minutes after listening. The only exception to this is "I See Ya", the closing track, which forgoes the jangly pseudo-dance style that M&K incorporated throughout the first twenty minutes of the album, and instead is slightly slower but still overly happy. If you're a Matt & Kim fan, I'm sorry, but I don't see how anyone can enjoy listening to the same joyful shanties on loop whenever this band releases an album. I'll admit that their big breakthrough song, "Daylight", was pretty catchy and enjoyable. However, with "New Glow", Matt & Kim were not able to capture the same kind of magic, and instead tried to feed us a spoonful of faux sunshine and happiness.

SCORE: 2/5

HIGHLIGHT: I See Ya