#5 Album Of 2011
Posted December 26, 2011
By KevinMcNeese_NRT, Staff Reviewer
By now, you should know if the song you are listening to is by Mat Kearney. You may still be getting introduced to his music, but his sound is unmistakable. It's acoustic pop layered over hip-hop and urban beats. It's a wispy and cool voice that's a combination of singsong and melodic rap. And it all blends together to create some pretty unmistakable songs. Young Love is filled with many musical moments that are hard to ignore.
Young Love, as the title suggests, revisits a time of falling in love. A time filled with butterflies, happiness, discovery, innocence and more, reflecting Mat's own life of recently getting married. Songs like the title track, "Ships In The Night," "Count On Me," "Young, Dumb and In Love," and "She's Got The Honey" focus on young relationships. They are fun, carefree and bring me back to that time in my own life as well before life starts complicating all of our relationships.
But along with that, there's also a few songs that dive into the darker places in Mat's own life, revealing some very personal struggles, none more prevalent than on "Rochester," a song about Mat's own father who faced loneliness, hardships and physical abuse. It's raw, rough, and tough to listen to, but it grounds the album in a reality that life isn't just about the up and joyful times. "Ships In The Night" is one of my favorite songs on the album, but despite the joyful beats and delivery, it pulls from a tough place in a relationship that continues to pull apart. But the lyric is just genius full of gems line after line. For anyone who's been in a relationship that gets past the initial butterflies, you'll be able to relate right away with this song.
Lyrically, the album is wonderful but like Owl City, there's not a ton of spiritual take away here. I'm ok with that because Mat's been very open about his own spirituality and I'm one that believes we need just as many positive songs about relationships and love as we do about our relationship with Christ. After all, there's more to love in this life than God and He designed it that way. We have our significant others, our family members, our friends and that's life. Mat sings about life and places his lyrics against a musical landscape that continues to be refreshing, relevant, intricate and inventive. If you enjoy great music, you don't want to miss this album. View All Music And Book Reviews By KevinMcNeese_NRT | View KevinMcNeese_NRT's Profile
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