Henry St.＜Red Vinyl＞

Seventeen years after Swedish folkie Kristian Matsson reinvented himself as the Tallest Man on Earth, hes clearly outgrown the plaintive, craggy strum of his early work, and 2023s Henry St. finds him exploring some new musical avenues. Working with producer Nick Sanborn (whos also a member of Sylvan Esso), Henry St. sees Matsson recording with a full band for the first time, and while he hasnt entirely forsaken his moody and tentative side, on songs like "In Your Garden Still," "Looking for Love," and "Every Little Heart," he sounds positively jaunty, with the drummer laying out energetic shuffle grooves and electric guitars and keyboards adding texture and dynamics to the arrangements. The brighter sound of the music is a good fit for Matssons vocals; the rough textures of the first releases have given way to a clearer and more youthful sound, as if hes evolved from Bob Dylans lost Swedish sibling to Stockholms answer to Steve Forbert. Even when his songs speak of love thats been mislaid or compromised, he isnt defeated so much as a man cursing the lesson and blessing the knowledge. Much of Henry St. was written after Matsson returned to Sweden after a long sojourn in New York City, though one might not guess that to hear it; big-city noise isnt in the DNA of these songs, but theyre not pastoral, either, capturing a sense of wonder that comes with watching the sunrise through the window of your first apartment. Henry St. seems no less sincere or heartfelt than anything Matsson has recorded in the past, yet here he embraces an unforced joy that connects in a way his more dour work did not, and it makes this one of the Tallest Man on Earths most purely pleasurable releases to date. ~ Mark Deming