On Matt Mitchell Music Company’s latest effort, Obvious Euphoria, you can’t help but hear the ghosts of John Prine and Jerry Jeff Walker throughout. Mitchell’s voice sounds more than a little like Prine’s and his songwriting, like Prine and Walker before him, has that same knack of mixing wry humor with sadness evenly.
The sly humor comes out clearly on songs like “Country Gonna Kill Me,” “House On Fire” and “Captain Toyota.” The charm comes across in the way he sings a lyric like “Would you go out for me/I need a book of matches and some kerosene/There’s more than one way to get clean/I’m gonna burn down everything” (“Kerosene”) so softly and earnestly across an unassuming acoustic soundtrack. Conversely, there is also a darkness to many of the songs here. On “Bootstrap Nation,” he tackles the opioid crisis in the U.S. with stark lyrics and he dips into despair and helplessness in “Meantime.” Coming in at nine tracks, the album closes on “All in Good Time” – a song that perfectly bridges both the more humorous moments and the sadder, darker tracks – a quieter optimistic closer leaving the listener wanting to start the record all over again.
There’s a deep grove between the soft drumming, the steady thump of standup bass and acoustic guitars that is weaved throughout the record. The addition of fiddle, clarinet and dulcimer throughout just adds to the appeal here. The Matt Mitchell Music Company is an Americana/Folk supergroup of sorts, featuring members from various Pacific Northwest bands like Taco Tapes, Desolation Horse, The Hackles and Blind Pilot. Though the band only got started in 2022, they already have two self-released albums to their name.
Recorded in Astoria, OR Obvious Euphoria was tracked live with minimal overdubs for a warm, consistent sound that doesn’t sound overproduced allowing the lyrics to take the bulk of the focus. The music here, builds nicely on the first two records, highlighting Mitchell’s vulnerability and wit in equal measure.
