Matthew Logan Vasquez’ last album was titled Does What He Wants and that accurately describes the singer/songwriter who refuses to be boxed in. Bouncing from noise punk squalls directly to personal emotional ballads, small solo albums to organizing full-on projects like Glorietta, MLV never can stand still. That sense of anything goes continues with Light’n Up as this collection of songs runs the gamut from heavily orchestrated efforts to toss off ditties with varying degrees of success.
The swaggering “Vacation” is one of the winners as it moves with strutting confidence, supported by a buzzing which just stays on the right side of annoying, and a huge groove before an odd electro ending while “Ghost Writers” attacks the Nashville system with direct lyrics and a hell of a riff. The rocking “Trailer Park” transports the listener to Vasquez adopted home of dusty Texas, introducing a cast of characters who feel all too real.
That realness is everywhere as Vasquez emotions and explicit familial bonds are on clear display throughout, most notably MLV bookends Light’n Up with odes to his wife. The sexual acoustic opener “Ballad In My Bed” is a poetic tale of love while the more direct storytelling of “Oslo” deals with worldly problems when couples leave the sheets, growing old and living life in general. There is a sense of Bob Dylan’s “Sara” to these recordings (and album as a whole) as MLV pulls back the curtain and writes what he feels sans filter; however, that self-reflecting rawness does not always make for the most identifiable tunes.
Father and sons also get a double feature as Vasquez delivers a naked emotional love song to his son obviously titled “I Love My Boy” augmented with accordion, mandolins and piano. The track is written from a touring musician’s perspective as he can’t be home while his son grows up. The bat shit crazy “Ball Pit” on the other hand throws tons of instrumentation at the listener declaring in almost Beck style, “Feel like a king baby number one/Pass the sin from father to son” before calling out for his baby to meet him in the title location. This track, complete with dance-laden pulsing bass, deep saxophones and hand claps is a good example of MLV’s bizarre charms; at first blush, it seems asinine and laughable, but upon repeated listens things improve and coalesce into an enjoyable experience.
Album centerpiece “Poor Kids” isn’t as successful as it loads up the layers of strings, mixes in digital beats and piano in a David Bowie style, but never hits the emotional or musical heights it strives for while “Character Assassination” is a waltz little number which just floats by not impacting deeply.
On Light’n Up Vasquez is out to write his personal quirky tunes in a wide variety of styles for himself and his family. If others like it, great, if not, no worries because as an artist MLV continues to cast a sprawling net and never ceases to follow the muse where it leads him.
