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Matt Costa - Unfamiliar Faces
| Ew | | California balladeer (and Jack Johnson protégé) Matt Costa loads Unfamiliar Faces, his second full-length with folk, indie, and psych-rock tunes — some hits (''Mr. Pitiful''), some misses (''Lilacs''). With a plucky guitar, harmonica, piano, and sun-burnished vocals, Costa knows how to work gospel's euphoric uplift into secular music, though he follows the blueprints of his idol (a ''Hurdy Gurdy Man''-era Donovan) a tad too closely. Thankfully, his old-timey charms don't overwhelm; it's more a reminder that in the Age of iPod, crackly vinyl is still worth cherishing....full text |
| | Allmusic | | Matt Costa's sophomore effort, Unfamiliar Faces, finds the singer/songwriter delving into similar territory to his 2006 debut, Songs We Sing, crafting hummable, somewhat intricate AM pop-influenced tracks. As with other similarly inclined artists like Josh Rouse, Costa trades in a kind of grab bag, post-alternative rock singer/songwriter style that references '80s British icons like Morrissey and the Cure as much as it does classic singer/songwriter and sunshine pop touchstones like Todd Rundgren, Brian Wilson, Jackson Browne, and others. A pleasant presence on record, Costa's vocal style does bring to mind a mix of the Shins' James Mercer and the Decemberists' Colin Meloy, and admittedly his odd penchant for affecting a British accent is a bit annoying -- he's from California for gosh sake....full text |
| | Popmatters | With his second release on Jack Johnson’s Brushfire Records label, singer-songwriter Matt Costa steps away from the guitar-and-voice template of his label-owning mentor with mixed results. On the one hand, the disc’s fussy arrangements sap the immediacy from much of his new material. On the other, the eclectic kitchen sink production is a lot of fun to hear.
Costa’s back story is probably familiar to anyone who has heard his name. Seven years ago he was a Huntington, California skate rat whose career came crashing to an untimely end when he shattered a leg during a skating accident at age 18. During a long recuperation, he took up guitar and writing songs....full text |
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