- Break, Rattle and Roll is the third album from alt-country artist Matt Joe Gow. Gow is based in Melbourne but originally from New Zealand. If country music isn’t the first cultural export we might associate with our Tasman neighbours, it’s worth remembering that Australia’s original country star Tex Morton made that same trip across the ditch many decades ago.
So Matt Joe Gow may come from Dunedin, but it’s the deep south of the USA that he evokes in his silky smooth voice and country rock tunes. The arrangements too are consciously set up to sound like classic 70’s records, with wailing lead guitar, soulful backing vocals and hammond organ recalling the classic rootsy rock of Little Feat or Exile on Main St era Rolling Stones.
On Gow’s bandcamp page, the album’s tags show up three variations of the phrase alt-country, but there is no country without the alt. He’s right I guess in that this album takes more musical cues from rock’n’roll than it does classic or modern country, but I don’t know how I feel about this. There’s nothing really very alternative about this album; and for all it’s ridiculousness, I quite like country music. It’s a genre unashamed to offer up the bits of humour, cheesiness and specific references that make it distinctive. If there’s a fault to Break, Rattle and Roll; it’s that it a bit too faithfully falls into the sound of those classic albums and as such sounds a bit placeless – like you could be listening to a classic hits radio station playing songs from any location and any era.
Having said that, Break, Rattle and Roll is a great sounding album. Opener Bridge Over Concrete is a good example of the swaggering Stonesy rock that makes up much of the album; Light My Way is slower but epic with it’s saxophone and slide guitar; while Old Hotel Room is a tear-jerker ballad, its stripped back acoustic sound allowing room for Gow’s smouldering vocals and lead guitar heroics. The playing is excellent and everything beautifully arranged, allowing the songs to breathe as many of them stretch well past the four minute mark. And of course there is Gow’s voice - smooth and sweet as caramel sauce dripping out of your speakers.
Break, Rattle and Roll may not go down as a classic, but classic rock it definitely is. And for those looking for a 2018 release carrying that classic 70’s torch, it will provide plenty of enjoyment.
- Andy Paine.