Matt Sharp - Puckett's Versus the Country Boy

Matt Sharp has been many things throughout his nearly 10 year recording career. On Weezer’s first two records, Sharp put forth some notable bass work and was responcible for their distinctive falsetto vocals. On Return of the Rentals, the debut from Sharp’s own band, he was a Gary Numan-devotee and engulfed his songs in Moog synthesizers, female harmonies and occasionally violin. On 7 More Minutes, the Rentals’ second album, Sharp’s songwriting was very hit or miss (hit – “Overlee,” “She Says It’s Alright,” miss – “Big Daddy C,” “The Man with Two Brains”) and the production so overblown that perfectly good songs got lost in the sonic muck. And now, Sharp has changed yet again, into an acoustic guitar toting folkie. Well, not quite, but on Puckett’s Versus the Country Boy, his first solo outing, Sharp replaces the layers of synthesizers, vocals and percussion with layers of…well, acoustic guitars. Originally conceived as a stripped down work, the record is still quite dense, with overdubbed acoustic guitars, piano, and some atmospheric sounds all weaving in and out of the mix. Despite its density, it manages to maintain warmth generally associated with more sparse works. Joing Sharp on acoustic guitar and vocals are former Cake guitarist Greg Brown, who lends some very nice, understated lead (acoustic) guitar and piano work and Josh Hager, who adds some lap steel guitar and “ambient sounds.” The music these three make is, for the most part, slow, tranquil and generally enjoyable. Sharp’s lyrics have gone from the space tales of Return to the European night life narratives of 7MM to Puckett’s direct melancholy that was hinted at in some of his Rentals material, but never fully realized. The 4-track EP begins with “Goodbye West Coast,” a matter-of-fact tale of going back to his hometown after a friend’s death. “Visions of Anna” is, sonically, the darkest and moodiest of the EP – Brown’s piano and Hager’s E-Bow truly shine on this track, as does Hager’s lap steel on “Some Come Running Through,” the record’s stand out track. The biggest flaw with the record is probably its meter. This is a slow record, folks. Seriously. This makes the first Ryan Adams record sound like Reign in Blood. Sharp himself, in a recent interview, admitted that the record can be difficult to listen to if not in the proper mindset. That’s not to say that it is a bad record – it is simply not a record for all occasions, nor for many occasions. 7MM, for all its flaws, was a party record – this is certainly not. However, that does not take away from the work that Sharp and co. put into the record. Sharp may not have made the spare, simple record he set out to make, but at least there is no “Big Daddy C.” [www.mattsharp.net]