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Avg: 4.0 (100 ratings)
- Date Released: February 16, 2004
- Genre: Country/Folk
- Style: Indie Rock, Contemporary Folk
- Label: Merge Records
Hear the Portland troubadour's unhinged beginnings
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We Say...
Matt Ward’s debut LP — recorded in his hometown of Portland, Oregon, in late summer 1998 — has enjoyed an epic series of rebirths: first released in limited quantities in 1999, Duet for Guitars #2 was reissued by Howe Gelb’s OwOm Records in 2000, and in 2007, resuscitated, again, by Ward’s current label, Merge. Toothy and sweet, Duet for Guitars #2 is delightfully under-produced — Ward’s pipes have since become well-behaved, but here they sound haphazard and vaguely unhinged, just as his guitar strums seem less stylized and more desperate. In “Scene from #12,” Ward’s vocals are just sandy enough to sell the chorus (“I ain’t sleeping/ I ain’t,” he crows, over and over), and scrappy indie throwdown “Look Me Over” is just as shambling, a mess of twittering percussion, choked verses and slammed acoustics. Although Duet for Guitars #2 inadvertently showcases how much progress Ward has made as a vocalist, it’s also an awful lot of fun, and re-proves that Ward is a natural-born songwriter with an undeniable penchant for melody.
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They Say...
Originally released in 1999, M. Ward's debut is a sparse, mostly live affair recorded with pal and engineer Adam Selzer of Norfolk & Western at Type Foundry Studio in Portland, OR. Listeners who are already accustomed to Ward's breathy, conversational vocal delivery and soft-picked, West Coast Americana melodies will find much to love here, while those looking for good entry point should probably start with one of his later albums. Duet for Guitars #2 is peppered with instrumentals in the John Fahey and Bad Timing-era Jim O'Rourke vein, and Ward's lackadaisical picking sounds just as lazily precise here as it does on future recordings. There's a real warmth to the sessions that transcends the often bare-bones production. For the most part, it sound like most takes were done live with two microphones, with the occasional overdub, and that style suits Ward's dreamy tales of molasses-slow teenage summers ("Beautiful Car") and oddball parables like "Fishing Boat Sons." It's also interesting to hear him shedding the inflections of some of his more obvious heroes like Neil Young ("Who May Be Lazy") and Bob Dylan ("It Won't Happen Twice"). Duet for Guitars #2 sounds like a debut. It's got some filler and it tips to the lo-fi end of the scale more often than not, but it's brimming over with promise and timelessness.
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| 01. |  |
Duet For Guitars #2 |
2:05 |
|
| 02. | |
Beautiful Car |
2:37 |
|
| 03. | |
Fishing Boat Song |
1:42 |
|
| 04. | |
Scene From #12 |
2:51 |
|
| 05. | |
Good News |
3:12 |
|
| 06. | |
The Crooked Spine |
1:38 |
|
| 07. | |
Look Me Over |
4:08 |
|
| 08. | |
Who May Be Lazy |
3:06 |
|
| 09. | |
It Won't Happen Twice |
2:46 |
|
| 10. | |
He Asked Me To Be A Snake And Live Underground |
1:19 |
|
| 11. | |
Song From Debby's Stairs |
3:20 |
|
| 12. | |
It Was A Beautiful Car |
1:06 |
|
| 13. | |
Were You There? |
2:37 |
|
| 14. | |
Not A Gang |
2:33 |
|
| 15. | |
Duet For Guitars #1 |
2:17 |
|
15 Total Tracks, 37:17 Total Length
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