M Ward - A Wastland Companion - Alt Folk Rock LP
LP

M Ward - A Wastland Companion

Genre: Rock

Style: Alternative Rock, Folk Rock, Pop Rock, Indie Rock

Year: 2012



Tracklist.






Clean Slate


Primitive Girl


Me And My Shadow


Sweetheart


I Get Ideas


The First Time I Ran Away





A Wasteland Companion


Watch The Show


There's A Key


Crawl After You


Wild Goose


Pure Joy






The first half of A Wasteland Companion suffers from Ward's seeming desire to do everything at once - from the contemplative folk of "Clean Slate"
he rushes into the heady "Primitive Girl," which, with its ivory pounding and lovelorn attitude, comes off as strangely tossed off, the kind of song Ward could write in his sleep.

That near flawless acoustic interlude seguing into the foreboding "Me and My Shadow," however, is just the kind of sleight-of-hand musicianship that Ward can make seem effortless.

While "Primitive Girl" and "Me and My Shadow" ostensibly seem quite different, in both tone and structure, they nevertheless hail from that same sepia-toned early `60s soundscape that Ward has been worshipping for years


the second half of the record proves. Ward is still the same classicist he's always been on a song like "The First Time I Ran Away," a student of Guthrie and Holly and well-traveled dirt roads, but "The First Time I Ran Away" feels indubitably organic whereas "Primitive Girl" sounds like a cover. That lovely strumming, the insistent bass drum beat echoing in the background, a touch of synths - it all accentuates an atmosphere Ward painstakingly crafts to sound like all his favorite old records, yet imbues with his own feeling and straightforward lyrical narratives. The twanginess of the title track increases in direct proportion to the distant background sounds of a crowd Ward interposes over the hum of strings, and it's nostalgic and affecting, but it touches something more primal and natural than the candy-coated pop hooks of the first half.


M Ward - Clean Slate




M. Ward - Primitive Girl

5/11/2012 Letterman




M. Ward - The First Time I Ran Away (Official Video)

Wow, this is truly a very great song. Reminds me of 'Everybody's Talking' .. but it's even more beautiful...inspiration to go beyond the human condition. M. ward is. he just is.




M. Ward - Watch the Show (Live on Craig Ferguson