“you are like the moon to me” is the latest release by Matt McClure, an outstanding American singer-songwriter based in Las Vegas. It’s his first piece of work this year and the fifth full-length album so far. Lyrically, Math Mclure’s music explores themes such as love, relationships, various sentiments, moods, situations, and circumstances through poetic storytelling lyricism, so it’s a highly relatable material that will immediately resonate with the broader auditorium. Sonically, the artist combines a singer-songwriter approach with many different but complementary styles, creating a luxuriant sonic imagery that immediately grabs by the collar and refuses to let go. Perhaps indie rock comes to mind first, but you’ll also stumble upon some of the finest properties borrowed from alternative, college rock, soft rock, indie folk, indie pop, and other similar genres. He uses all these additional sonic ingredients as more than necessary enhancements, accentuations, decorations, and other details to elevate his music to new heights while simultaneously remaining loyal to the primary sonic direction. “you are like the moon to me” carries sound quality that meets all the trends in contemporary music production yet there’s a subtle touch of nostalgia lurking around. These continuous levitations between modern and retro sound unquestionably decorate the entire album, making this material such a pleasant listening experience suitable not only for indie rock fans but also for anyone who appreciates expertly composed and flawlessly performed music. Therefore, these experimentations with different approaches and complementary styles resulted in a comprehensive collection of catchy, memorable, engaging songs that will immediately resonate with the crowd.
As soon as you press play, you’ll notice that Matt McClure poured heart and soul into this material. He showcases his tremendous experience, knowledge, creativity, talent, and skills through each composition, making “you are like the moon to me” such an enjoyable piece of sonic artistry worth repeating over and over again. Each track arrives with a perfect structure, adorned with many profoundly detailed segments, brilliant ideas, and marvelous orchestrations. From the opening notes and beats of the introductory piece to the closing chord progressions of the last song, this album carries you through the expansive sonic universe where each vocal harmony, each chord progression, and every beat of the drums are carefully assembled for maximum impact. McClure’s soulful, passionate, sincere, confident, emotional, powerful vocal performance serves as a centerpiece of this material, elevating everything to new heights, commanding attention, and guiding the listening apparatus through every song. His subtly raspy yet melodic voice seamlessly glides over low, mid, and high notes, emphasizing everything he intended to achieve with his music. Besides decorating every segment and instrumentation, he also contributed more than the necessary emotional depth and complexity to already intricate compositions. While each track carries mesmerizing vocal harmonies, tracks like “Coughers,” “That Coach Is Lying,” “Former Farmer,” “Yarn Collective,” “Eastern Outs,” “Solid Stares,” “Bill Country,” and “Distant Dogs” beautifully showcase his vocal abilities.
In the meantime, the guitar works shape such a perfect backdrop for all the vocals to shine upon. You’ll stumble upon a comprehensive collection of various layers articulating around without overwhelming each other, demonstrating McClure’s dedication to the craft to the max. Whether delivering highly distorted riffs or more acoustic chord progressions, his guitar performance always shines, creating majestic soundscapes that instantly wrap around your listening apparatus and refuse to let go. Of course, there are additional themes, melodies, harmonies, and accentuations lurking around, uplifting particular segments or entire songs. It’s nearly mindblowing how all these guitar works match McClure’s excellent vocal harmonies, making “you are like the moon to me” even more pleasing to the ears. You’ll also notice additional instrumentations like synths, keys, and string section enhancing particular segments of these songs. This album wouldn’t sound this good without the equally impressive rhythm section. You’ll notice how all those detailed, vividly hearable, warm-sounding basslines roar beneath the guitar layers, offering more than necessary heaviness, clarity, and depth while serving as glue between all the orchestrations and rhythmic patterns. These low-ends are luxuriant, deep, dense, and heavy, contributing more groove, depth, and detail to the entire album. In the meantime, the exceptional drumming performance based upon tastefully assembled, flawlessly performed, well-accentuated beats, breaks, fills, and other percussive acrobatics keep everything in line while dictating groove and pace. You’ll notice how each hit of the snare, kick of the bass drum, and splash over cymbals cuts the ambiance, adding even more complexity to the album.
Tracks like “Coughers,” “That Coach Is Lying,” “Former Farmer,” “Yarn Collective,” “Eastern Outs,” “Solid Stares,” “Rangraw,” “Bill Country,” and “Distant Dogs” are unquestionable standouts yet you should pay close attention while listening to the remainder of the song as well, because the entire “you are like the moon to me” shines with many impressive, memorable moments. Matt McClure invested the finest ideas and superb musicianship into it, making an amalgam of songs suitable for any mood and occassion. “you are like the moon to me” beautifully blends a singer-songwriter approach with an indie rock sound, and it’s undoubtledly one of the finest records in this music genre you’ll hear this year. You should immediately place this incredible record on your music radar. Don’t miss it!
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