Falling back in love with Some Mad Hope...

It seems to be rare these days when an album, a WHOLE album, hits you just right; where you want to listen to it over and over and over and over and then listen some more. And you want to listen in order. And you want to listen out of order. And you want to invent your own order. There are very few albums that have had that effect on me.

Matt Nathanson's Some Mad Hope is just such an album.

I loved it from the minute I first heard it in 2007 and saw him play selections from it live on more than one occasion since it came out - six times to be exact. Waiting nearly four years for his next album - I'm just assuming it's actually going to come out in 2011 - has been torture, but I always have Some Mad Hope to fall back on. If he never made another album I'd be sad, but I'd also be okay because yeah, it's JUST THAT GOOD!

I listened to it in its entirety for the first time in probably a year or so over the last couple of days and remembered exactly why I fell in love with it to start with. Let me just lay it out for you...and trust me, if you've never heard it, or have only heard the songs on the radio, you are missing out. BIG TIME. Get this album. Now. Do it.

Okay, here we go...

CAR CRASH

Yes. You've heard this. It was on the radio. I think there was even a video, though I don't completely remember. From the first chord, the sound that guitar makes, I am hooked. And Matt is such a genius with words that I don't ever stop being hooked.

Opening Line: I'm wide awake and so alive; ringing like a bell.

How great is that? Wide awake. Alive. Ringing. And yet, he still wants to feel something, to be more satisfied. Isn't that what we all want? To feel and be satisfied? I think for most of us the answer is yes.

Favorite Line: Take me deep out past the light where nothing dims these stars.

I think I love that line so much because it reminds me of growing up in Wyoming and how you can just see stars forever. Nothing dims them. I realize that the meaning in the song is likely deeper, but I think the sentiment is the same. Get me out of the light of the world and let what the world is supposed to be really shine. That's how I see it anyway.

Closing Line: I'm open wide.

I love that. I wanna feel, I'm open, let me see it. All of it. After that we jump right into the biggest hit from the album...

COME ON GET HIGHER

This song is sexy. And as Matt said in a concert late last year, it paid his mortgage. This was his biggest hit to date, and the video was divine. Even if there were no words, the music would make you feel beautiful and wanted and loved. When I saw him sing this in 2007 not too long after the album came out he made it very clear that he wrote it to be a romantic song. And trust me. He succeeded. 

Opening Line: I miss the sound of your voice; and I miss the rush of your skin; and I miss the still of the silence; as you breathe out and I breathe in.

Wow. Imagine being missed like that. I honestly can't, but I love the idea of it, to be missed so much that the one missing you misses the small silence between breaths. Swoon.

Favorite Line: I ache to remember all the vile and sweet perfect words that you said.

Again. Aching to remember. How awesome is that? When's the last time you ached for someone like that? Or had someone ache for you? I can't imagine what that would feel like on either side...to ache or be ached for. Either one, I think would be amazing.

Whenever I hear this song I can see him singing it live and I smile thinking about him smiling as he sang it. It was obvious how much he loved singing it and very clear that he felt every bit of it.

Closing Line: Everything works in your arms.

That's pretty cut and dry. I miss you. I ache for you. It all works with you. Yeah. That all seems good to me.

Heartbreak World

It's actually a bit of a melancholy song, talking about the world that breaks your heart, but then also talking about making dreams come true. It's what we all need to be moving toward...getting out of the heartbreak, figuring out what our dreams are, even if they're not fully developed yet, just going for it.

Opening Line: Let's all pack up and move this year; we'll slip the lines and disappear; leave memories for auctioneers and those just standing still.

 

The whole song is about leaving what's not working, what's breaking your heart, and moving forward. Sometimes that starts with moving. It may not be from one place to another, but to make any kind of change, you have to move. And you have to pack the old away.

Favorite Line: Let's move out of Los Angeles; and just drive until this summer gives; forget the lives we used to live.

I remember so vividly Matt singing this in San Francisco and when the line about leaving Los Angeles came around the entire venue cheered loudly. I think that, more than anything, makes me smile when I hear this song.

Closing Line: Come on let's make this dream that's barely half awake come true.

I love the strain in his voice on the last line, like he really wants us to come on the journey with him, to find what's going to really make us happy. It's just good!

Gone

This, like many songs, is about leaving, but it's laid out a bit differently. He seems genuinely sad that he's been hurt, that he's fallen out of love, that he has to go. The idea of it makes him short of breath. And apparently, whatever he's leaving, whomever, was the best he ever had, but it's like he knew it wasn't right even though it was really good.

Opening Line: Love; I'm aching to believe; give me something real enough; give me somewhere to fall from.

Continuing the theme of aching for love this line starts the song right. Just give me something. And he doesn't even ask for something real, just real enough. And he doesn't care if he falls. I think so many times we're looking for perfect and we just keep reaching. But we don't take risks and we don't give things a chance. For me, that line says all that and more.

Favorite Line: At its worst the heart is sober, at its worst the heart is cold.

Love Love Love this! I just love the idea that the heart shouldn't be sober or cold. It should be warm and drunk on the person you love. And if it isn't, then what's the point?

Closing Line: I'm gone; and when I disappear, don't expect me back.

In other words, he won't be crawling back to the one he's leaving. And no one should expect him to. He has to make the clean break or he'll never get out of it. This is a good lesson for all of us in more things than just love.

Wedding Dress

When I first heard this song and didn't really listen closely to the words I thought it was about people getting married, and it is, but the meaning seems much deeper than that. I think it could go a couple of ways. One, this guy's getting married, but he's not really sure he should be, and he sees his future wife there in her wedding dress and the idea of forever is just too much for him. Or two, the woman this guy loves is getting married and seeing her in her wedding dress, about to give her forever to someone else, is more than he can bear. I'm not sure what Matt's meaning was here, but it's definitely not a cheery wedding tune.

Opening Line: So we lie here in the dark; all the wrong things on fire; in sickness and health; to be with you; just to be with you.

You can tell in the last part of the line, to be with you, just to be with you, that he's aching to be with this person. But it's not right. You just feel it.

Favorite Line: All I can feel is how long ever after is; and it's all that I can do; to be with you; just to be with you.

I would guess that a lot of people feel this before they're about to get married. I'm not married, nor have I ever been close to getting married, so I can't say for certain, but it seems like when you really think about forever and ever after it can be a little overwhelming. And it's literally going to take every ounce of yourself to be with that person.

Closing Line: I wanna be missing you love; missing you love; all that I have left.

Most of the songs on this album have an actual end, but this one fades away and I think it's completely on purpose. At the end he's frantically missing this person, and he just keeps saying it but the music fades before he can finish. It's like he's being pulled away and as it's happening he knows that person is all he has and he's missing her. Seriously love it.

Bulletproof Weeks

On my first few passes on this album this song didn't stand out as much as some others. I'm not sure if it's because I was in a different place in my life or what, but at some point, it hit me. And it broke me. At first I thought it was a post-9/11 sort of tune, talking about September taking the tourists, and it still has that feel to me, but I think it could also just be talking about transitions and moving on and how it happens without us even noticing sometimes. It's clearly set in New York, and now, after having been to New York, it just makes me want to go back.

Opening Line: Somewhere in between; the beginning and the end; September took the tourists; and settled in for good.

He sounds so sad when this song starts, and the simplicity of his guitar and how we can hear his fingers sliding on the strings...oh my goodness, it makes me sigh. It's like something or someone he loves is gone and he's not even quite sure how they faded away. When it gets to the chorus he asks a lot of questions without actually asking what happened to his love.

Favorite Line: Talking to what's left of you, and watching what I say; counting on the freckles on your perfect face.

It seems to me that somehow the one he loved started to fade away, and we're never sure why, but somehow, the love they had, the fun they had, is gone. It's like maybe they used to be young and carefree and now they're grown up and it's not so simple, not so easy, and it's hard to figure out why or how to move on.

Closing Line: What happened to bulletproof weeks in your arms? What happened to feeling cheap radio songs? What happened to thinking that the world was flat? What happened? What happened to that?

Now, listening again this morning, I'm wondering again if it's more about 9/11 than anything. Maybe its about how we've all changed since then, and nothing is simple anymore, and we can't think about things in the same way. Maybe it's about how we lost something great and we don't know exactly why but we know we miss it.

When I saw him sing this live sometime in 2008, I think in November at the Warfield in San Francisco, I can honestly say I've never heard a venue so quiet. It was quite possibly the most beautiful concert moment I've ever had.

To the Beat of our Noisy Hearts

I like how the album moves from such a mellow point to this song, which is more upbeat and more uplifting at the outset. We meet this girl who is a risk taker and while we all keep moving to the noise around us, she's out there actually living.

Opening Line: She don't lie in bed at night; staring at the ceiling; she don't wait to begin.

Favorite Line: She bets on longshots; she wants what they've got; she skates where the ice thins.

This girl is all about the risk. And that's a good thing. She's doing what people tell her not to, and it's working for her. But then we hear this line: She says pick up the phone 'cause I need to get more alone and your voice drives me crazy. Does she love this guy? And why would she be more alone if he answered? It just seems like there's so much noise around us that maybe we get confused sometimes and need to slow down and really be alone. Most of us don't take the time to do that.

Closing Line: On and on we keep going; crowded like subway cars; on and on to the beat of our noisy hearts.

By the time the song ends my whole perspective changes. I always start it thinking that it's the world around us that's loud, but in the end, I think it's our hearts that are making all the noise, and while it can drown us out, it's what actually drives us. And when we don't hear the noise, we do whatever we can to find it. We take risks, we reach for people, we try to live.

Still

I loved this song from the beginning, but it became one of my favorites after I saw him sing it live at a radio event in 2008. It wasn't released as a single, but it really should have been. I think it's MUCH sexier than Come On Get Higher, more intimate somehow. I just know that you feel every bit of his love for this woman and you, okay I, wish I was her. To have someone remember you like that? Delicious.

Opening Line: I remember hearts that beat; yeah, yeah; I remember you and me; yeah, oh yeah; tangled in hotel sheets; you wore me out, you wore me out.

I can see his face singing this line so clearly, and the smile when he said yeah, oh yeah...goodness. It was perfectly crooked and telling. You could tell he was remembering something beautiful. Whether it was really a moment in a hotel room or something else, it doesn't matter. He's in it, so you're in it.

Favorite Line: And you moved like water, yeah; and you broke like rain; I've never been deeper; so far gone; your sister in the next room with the television on.

Wow. Don't you just get the feeling, even just reading those words, that this love, this romance, this affair, whatever it was, was absolutely beautiful? I've never been deeper. So far gone. It just...well, I think you get it.

Closing Line: Still can feel you kiss me love; still can see your eyes like diamonds, diamonds; memories are strong enough; so come on and drive me wild; come on and drive me wild.

I think by the end we realize he's still in love with this woman and remembers their first days together and just thinking about it is enough to drive him wild, but he doesn't just have to think because she's right there, and no matter how many years have passed, she's still the one. And really, who doesn't want to be that person?

Detroit Waves

This was honestly not one of my favorites when I started listening to the record. It sounded different and didn't seem to fit. But then I started listening more closely and realized how much it's really saying. Matt has such a way with words that sometimes you have to listen several times before really hearing what he's trying to say. That's what this song was like for me. And now I just love it.

Opening Line: So, we let it go to start again; knowing now how all our best intentions never lit the world on fire.

I love this. He's looking back and when we do that we always see the better path we could have taken. We always see that even though we had good intentions with some things, some people, but even our best intentions aren't enough sometimes to make something great.

Favorite Line: When you're warm enough to share your sheets; cold enough to make it seem like I was only there long enough to disappear.

Man. That line says so much. I think the reason this song is more upbeat is that it's telling us a story of a short-lived romance that was exciting at the beginning but just didn't have enough to make it last.

Closing Line: Detroit waves goodnight; spread out, beneath me now; If I could; if I could change, believe me I would, yes I would. Detroit waves. Detroit waves.

I sometimes wonder if this song is more about music and the music industry. I'm still not sure why Detroit plays such a big role in it, but I was thinking about Motown and how so many people had a love affair with it. Or maybe it's about the automobile industry, and how it was all great in the beginning and we fell in love, but then it wasn't great and we knew it, and even though we had the best intentions of making it work we just couldn't. And now Detroit sits there, a broken city, and we would like to see it change, to get better, but we don't know how. 

I don't know. It's likely about something completely different, but this is what I've been thinking about.

Falling Apart

This was supposed to be released as a single, and I'm pretty sure there was a video, but it never caught on like Car Crash or Come On Get Higher and I honestly can't understand why. The music is just as good, the lyrics are great, and it's a great song.

Opening Line: Maybe it's because I'm crazy; maybe it's because I just can't honestly tell you what I want.

I love how the piano plays such a nice role at the beginning of this song. Most of Matt's songs are guitar-driven, since he plays the guitar masterfully, so I love how the piano drives the beginning of this. And I love the idea that he's just like, look, I can't even tell you what I want because maybe I don't even know, I just know that what I've got now is not enough. Oh to be this honest in real life.

Favorite Line: I've given up; so call my bluff; 'cause I just need to be reminded who I am.

This line comes after he talks about how people sell you out, how he's safe in the arms of the one he loves, maybe. He's not sure, but he knows he should be safe there, but he feels like they're all over the place, falling apart, spilling over. And he knows he hasn't done everything he's done and said wasn't great, but he also knows it doesn't matter. He's given up and needs to get back to the person he used to be.

Closing Line: So wanna be loved; falling apart; so wanna be loved; so come on, love; so come on, love.

By the time the song ends we see him wanting and reaching for love and all he can say is come on. Come on love. Come find me. I gave up on not wanting you, but now I do. Come on.

Sooner Surrender

I like how the music sort of fades in with a simple pad on a keyboard, and then we hear his guitar, and he starts to tell us a story.

Opening Line: In the party love; some band's playing Hallelujah; Hallelujah; in the corner the all night girls drink wine and try to sing along.

It's funny, but I always wonder what version of Hallelujah the band is playing. I assume it's the Leonard Cohen song that Jeff Buckley sang so beautifully, and one that many, many others have recorded. I assume it's not the Hallelujah chorus, though that would be more entertaining. I like the visual here, of a band just playing in party, probably at a bar, and there's this group of girls singing in the corner. He's painting us a picture of a scene, and the whole idea of them singing or the band playing really has nothing to do with the rest of the song.

Favorite Line: You've got someone new singing you your songs now; I'd sooner surrender than watch the last walls collapse.

Ouch. He's given up. She's got someone else and rather than watching it completely collapse he's surrendered to her. Later we hear that he hates how he just gave up and that he's waiting for love to come back to him and how he's stuck somewhere and she's coming alive. It's heartwrenching, at least to me. It's like he gave up too easily and didn't fight for what he wanted and now he's at some sad party where these sad drunk girls are singing along to a song he can no longer relate to.

Closing Line: I'd sooner surrender, then watch the last wall collapse; I'd sooner surrender, and our love would count for everything; and our love would count for everything; I miss when you were everything.

This is another song that fades away, though not as dramatically as Wedding Dress. But it ends with just simple notes on a keyboard, maybe even an organ, and we know it's over. He let her go and he misses her but she's moved on and all he can do is remember and be sorry and wish he'd fought for her. Sigh.

All We Are

I can only smile when I hear this. Seriously. I don't see how every single on this album wasn't a Top Ten hit. Maybe the world just isn't ready for this sort of honesty. Maybe people don't want to feel this exposed and don't want to admit that they've failed and that what they really want is love. Pure and simple.

Opening Line: Tasted, tasted, love so sweet; and all of it was lost on me; bought and sold like property; sugar on my tongue.

What a great opening line. I've tasted love, but I totally missed it. How many of us can say that? Do we even really know what love is? Would we know it if it happened to us or would it just dissolve like sugar without us even realizing it was there? I wonder about this a lot actually. I can't say I've ever been in love, and no, that's not hard to admit, okay, maybe a little hard, but hearing these words make me wonder if I just missed it, either because I wasn't paying attention or because I just really didn't get it. Am I alone in this?

Favorite Line 1: I went broke believin' that the simple should be hard.

Favorite Line 2: Well it's hard to change the way you lose if you think you've never won.

The fact is, every line in this song could be my favorite, but these two just jump out every time. In fact, for several years now, the second one has been my email tagline. It's just such an interesting idea. You can't change the way you lose, the way you react to losing, if you think you've never won. It's like, if you don't know what being the victor is like, how can you really be sad about losing? And the first line, wow. That is just so true all over our world. We work so hard at stuff that should be simple. Most things are simple and somehow, with our technology and the media blaring at us all the time, they become more complex and much harder to deal with and we kill ourselves trying to figure it all out.

Closing Line: All we are, we are; all we are, we are; and everyday's the start of something beautiful, beautiful.

Perfect end to this record and seriously just brought tears to my eyes listening again. After all the heartache, all the wondering, all the longing, all the missing, we get to start every day fresh. Every day is beautiful and let's us start again. It's just simply perfect. 

So, like I said before, if you don't have it already, go get this record. Trust me. You will not regret it. I can only hope Matt's next album, coming out in June, is as good, but this is going to be tough to beat.