Scott Matthew - There Is An Ocean That Divides Album Review

Review of the Scott Matthew album 'There Is An Ocean That Divides'

Scott Matthew or Scotty as you may have seen him credited before is not the Birmingham troubadour, but a Brooklyn based Queenslander of a similar ilk. Matthew seems to be highly credited with movie soundtracks aside from his 2007 self titled debut album. He was also part of indie band Elva Snow with ex-Morrissey member Spencer Cobrin. His second album 'There Is An Ocean That Divides' is released under independent label Glitterhouse Records.

From the off the minor guitar chords and sad sounding piano, along with Matthew's gloomy vocals set a melancholic tone for the album. 'Every Road Travelled' is quite a poignant track that allows Matthew's to get the best out of his voice. 'For Dick' shows off the androgynous side of Matthew's range and has a quality to it rather like a heart breaking scene moment in a movie, hang on, maybe this why he has so many movie credits!

After the first two heart wrenches we get treated to a little bit of ukulele. Matthew's sings about taking drugs and how the Devil taught him alibis, perfect lyrics to accompany Lucifer's instrument of choice. The song builds with the help of some female vocals and jolly trumpets and possesses some intelligent dynamics which makes this one of the highlights of the album. Maybe he shouldn't play it to his mother though; she may not like the drug references.

After that bit of jollyment we return to the sombre mood with 'White Horse', a song about a horse, white in colour, that is trying to kill him. maybe he should avoid horses in the future. This is followed by 'Dog', a song about forgetting someone's name. Ha! You thought I was going to say about a dog!

The title track is a piano track with warm vocals from Matthew's and repetitive whispering from a female vocalist; again this track has a soundtrack feel to it, and is in itself an interesting track. On 'Thistle' we again receive a servicing of merriment with the trumpets and up tempo beat, although analysing Matthew's lyrics we realise he thinks God treats him like a whore. Can that be deemed as slander, he shouldn't pick fights with people like God, they are hard to wrestle, you cant see em!

'Wolverine' shows off Scott's talent of sounding a little like lady again and I assume is in no way connected with the film, if it is; then Wolverine should be ashamed of himself, scaring young hermaphrodite-esque men.

'There Is An Ocean That Divides' is a very good album with intelligent song writing and an overabundance of musical quality and should appeal to the Tom Waits and Nick Cave fans out there.

Rating: 8/10