The Tallest Man on Earth - There's No Leaving Now

The Tallest Man on Earth - 1904

Runs for - 3:59

Pretty indicative of the rest of the album - 

well produced, decent vocals and intricate guitar work.

Before I start up this post, I’d like to ask you to do yourself a favour and get onto YouTube and start tracking down songs from The Tallest Man on Earth’s album, The Wild Hunt. It’s been one of my favourite folk releases since Damien Rice or Bon Iver. It’s passionate, fast, evocative and a great listen for when your day needs a pick-up.

Before we go any further, I'd like to explain two things. Firstly, The Tallest Man on Earth is simply a moniker. Apparently he isn't that tall. Secondly, his real name is Kristian Matsson. That's just for trivia. Lets get on with it.

Now we’ve got his next album, There’s No Leaving Now. I’d argue it’s worse. It didn’t grip me like The Wild Hunt did on the first listen. There’s No Leaving Now isn’t fast or as catchy, but the songs seem to be better constructed and more mellow. It isn’t driven as strong by acoustic guitar wizardry, but rather uses more effects, layering and subtle delay. It hold a certain orchestral sound to it, more polished but less… intimate… I’d say. Vocally, he’s tuned it down a bit. It’s not nessecarily less wail-ey, less Dylan-esque, but it has that feel to it, as if he’s taken an edge off. The vocals seem to dance around more on most tracks rather than keeping to a familiar pattern that sticks to the chorus and the verse. Sometimes he’ll wail a little higher over the bridge, incorporate a bit of a grind over certain words for emphasis… it’s in these subtle techniques that you can see that he’s getting better at what he’s doing.

The problem here is that it seems like he’s substituted, in a way, better songs for better songwriting. The tracks are undoubtedly better constructed but they lack that certain rawness that made the first album good. There are a lot of slower tracks and the guitar work is a lot calmer than earlier – not to mention there’s more piano. This pretty much pushes his lyrical work do the rest. Not to say that it’s weak at all, more that it feels like a step back or rather that his element isn’t here.

Wind and Walls is a pretty guitar based track, but he’s chucked on a subtle bit of reverb on his voice to give an echo effect, and it just seems unnecessary. It kind of castrates the music from it’s identity. We’re dealing with an acoustic powered song with special effects thrown over the top of it. In my head, if somebody wants to work an acoustic track, It should be simple as voice and guitar. Nothing else. But he’s thrown all this layering and effect all over it and it just feels as if it’s betraying the intimacy, the sheer passion of the music by changing it into something it’s not. If I had it my way, I’d have the effects cut down severely and leave the album with it’s bones. There’s definite emotion and talent in this release, but the fact that it’s overproduced is doing a very good job of masking that passion.

Still though, there’s a lot of fantastic guitar work going on. It’s quick, high and rather airy. All in all, the whole album doesn’t falter on that front and remains consistently impressive. It’s a great album to listen to as background noise if you’re chilling out around the house or just looking to relax. It’s a very diverse release as well I’m just saying is that he’s done better is all.

Reccomended for: Folk heads, Bob Dylan enthusiasts (maybe, unless you get shitted off by the idea they sound similar), aspiring acoustic guitarists, etc.

Also! IMPORTANT TO NOTE! He's doing an Australian tour in the not too distant future! Eyes peeled people!

The Tallest Man on Earth - Wind and Walls

Runs for: 4:09

Like I said before - would make a strong track even without the effects. 

Were they really needed?