The Tallest Man On Earth – Henry St. (2023) [FLAC 24bit/48kHz]

The Tallest Man On Earth – Henry St. (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 42:09 minutes | 494 MB | Genre: Indie Folk, Singer-Songwriter
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Anti – Epitaph

Kristian Matsson has never remained in one place for very long. Having spent much of the last decade touring around the world as The Tallest Man on Earth, Matsson has captivated audiences using, as The New York Times describes, “every inch of his long guitar cord to roam the stage: darting around, crouching, stretching, hip-twitching, perching briefly and jittering away… Mr. Matsson is a guitar-slinger rooted in folk, and his songs are troubadour ballads at heart.” Now, Matsson returns as The Tallest Man on Earth with Henry St., his sixth studio album following 2012’s There’s No Leaving Now, full of “vivid imagery, clever turns-of-phrase, and devastating, world-weary observations” (Under The Radar) and 2015’s Dark Bird Is A Home, his “most personal record… surreal and dreamlike” (Pitchfork). Henry St. Notably marks the first time he recorded an album in a band setting. “My entire career I’ve been a DIY person-mostly fueled by the feeling that I didn’t know what I was doing, so I’d just do everything myself.” But now, longing for the energy that’s only released when creating together with others, Matsson invited his friends to come and play. Nick Sanborn (of Sylvan Esso) produced Henry St., which includes contributions from Ryan Gustafson (of The Dead Tongues) on guitar, lap steel and ukulele, TJ Maiani on drums, CJ Camerieri (of Bon Iver) on trumpet and French horn, Phil Cook on piano and organ, Rob Moose (of Bon Iver, yMusic) on strings and Adam Schatz on saxophone.When the pandemic drove Kristian Matsson from New York City back to his farm in Sweden he felt enveloped by silence, stating frankly in his current bio, “I lost my imagination.” Fortunately, when the singer-songwriter/guitarist who goes under the nom de stage The Tallest Man on Earth began to tour again his creative dam burst: “When I’m in motion, I can focus on my instinct, have my daydreams again.” After writing twenty songs in ten days, some of which became his seventh full length Henry St., Matsson, initially a throwback Dylan devotee, decided that for the first time in his career he needed a band around him to flesh out his creations. It’s a welcome new flavor, although, other than drummer TJ Maiani, who occasionally makes his presence felt—mostly via brushes—players like Ryan Gustafson of Sylvan Esso (guitar, lap steel), Bon Iver’s CJ Camerieri (horns) and Rob Moose (strings) are mostly just background as Matsson’s voice, consistently able to reach for emotion and urgency, is the star here, along with the songs, many of them with appealing melodic turns, like the opener “Bless You.” In “Major League” he plays a jaunty banjo and sings lines about Cleveland, a Randy Newman song and how “I’m just waiting on a word from America.” His sometimes home in the New World reappears in the title track as this “little dude” ponders his physical and emotional travels, “In the scape of songs/ I know I’m wrong/ I just feel it right/ I swim the world/ In my wishing well/ I just don’t know if I can take it anymore.” After Dylan, the strong and often high voiced Mattson, whose phrasing is occasionally reminiscent of Justin Vernon of Bon Iver, is also a student of ’60s troubadours, borrowing the attitude and bounce of early Cat Stevens in “In Your Garden Still.” Determined to pound on eternal and unanswerable questions until some meaning seeps out, in “Italy” he admits, “I know that I stay with the life I dream and part of it shows” before coming to the only honest answer possible, “But I don’t know of a way out in the river of time.” Persistently inquiring in each song on Henry St., Matsson the searcher continues his quest. – Robert Baird

Tracklist:

1-01. The Tallest Man On Earth – Bless You (04:03)
1-02. The Tallest Man On Earth – Looking For Love (03:35)
1-03. The Tallest Man On Earth – Every Little Heart (03:09)
1-04. The Tallest Man On Earth – Slowly Rivers Turn (03:35)
1-05. The Tallest Man On Earth – Major League (03:06)
1-06. The Tallest Man On Earth – Henry St. (04:29)
1-07. The Tallest Man On Earth – In Your Garden Still (04:29)
1-08. The Tallest Man On Earth – Goodbye (04:04)
1-09. The Tallest Man On Earth – Italy (04:30)
1-10. The Tallest Man On Earth – New Religion (04:24)
1-11. The Tallest Man On Earth – Foothills (02:41)

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