REVIEW: Jim Matheos - "Away With Words" (1999)

Reviewed by: Marco van Leeuwen (overlord@caiw.nl)

Album found at: Plato, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Review date: Sunday, September 12th 1999.

Track Listing:

[1]    A Way With Words (4:37)
[2]    Palindrome (3:31)
[3]    Astronomics (4:16)
[4]    The Language Of Silence (4:23)
[5]    Piscataquog (4:07)
[6]    A Conference Of Clouds (5:33)
[7]    Mumbo Jumbo (3:35)
[8]    Tongue Tied (3:07)
[9]    The Last Light Of August (6:28)
[10]    Goodnight, Goodbye (3:35)

Total Running Time: (43:15)

Performers:

Jim Matheos - Acoustic Guitar
Charlie Bisharat - Violin
Michael Manring - Bass
Mark Zonder - Drums and Percussion

The human voice is an extraordinarily expressive instrument. No two voices are
exactly the same, and within a good vocalist's range there are numerous
possibilities for unique variations in sound. However, the thing that makes
the voice so special, is it's potential to form words, a word being a sonic
constructum that has a certain *meaning* beyond the immediately apparent by
virtue of it being part of a larger practice. Within a certain social and
cultural context, some concatenations of sounds can refer to objects, states
of affairs, concepts or operations because the people have agreed to partake in
that particular context, which enables them to reconstruct and interpret
part of the intentions and thoughts of the speaker based on what he or she said.
    The fact that words can be used by appropriately conditioned listeners
to create links to entities outside the boundaries of the conversation or the
song in which these words appear vastly increases the scope of said conversation
or song, and because the act of reconstruction while trying to apprehend a
sentence or group of sentences is such a personal process (despite the need
to submit to the whims of the collective precisely because language is a
communal practice), a song with great lyrics can touch you on many other levels than
just the immediately and viscerally aesthetical. The ability of the human
voice to inflict these words with many different shades of meaning by way of
intonation and such only increases the range of emotions, thoughts and
feelings that can be expressed in a song.
    Despite the fact that many songs today feature lyrics of below average
intellectual content, thus limiting the potential impact as addressed above,
songs with vocals are by far the most popular in modern music - to release a
fully instrumental album in the contemporary music arena is therefore quite
brave. Some artists have been making instrumental music with quite a bit of
success for many years, so apparently it is possible for such an artist to
survive - guitar wizard Joe Satriani is a good example. With many of
Satriani's best compositions, the absence of vocals does not create a void - rather, he
lets his guitar do the talking to create that space pregnant with associations
that would normally have emerged from the use of lyrics.
    In a similar fashion, the musical artists (an appropriate way to
describe these people who paint with sounds) on "Away With Words" create soundscapes
rich with meaning and imagery. The lack of words on this album is not a
flaw, but an asset: it gives the listener the space to enjoy the music and let the
mind wander on the unique flow the interplay of instruments creates.
    A comparison with both Matheos' previous solo effort, "First
Impressions" (1993), as well as his work with Fates Warning, is inevitable. In regard to
the former, it can be said that "Away With Words" is more varied and more upbeat
- the use of a partly contemporary setup (bass and drums) in addition to
Matheos' guitar and Bisharat's violin create very intriguing dynamics that were
lacking on the 1993 disc, where the combination of acoustic guitar, cello and violin
could get a bit bogged down at times. Of course the subtle, mostly laid
back, new-age-like material on AWW is quite a digression from Fates Warning's
customarily amplified progressive rock approach, but still AWW manages to
recapture the atmosphere that is present during some of the softer parts of
1997's "A Pleasant Shade Of Gray". I can see a song like "A Conference Of
Clouds" being a great success at future Fates Warning live concerts, perhaps
with the violin replaced by an electric guitar.
    One of the biggest surprises of the album is track 8, which manages to
sound fit for linedancing (yes, that's right, you are not hallucinating)
without getting tacky. The production of the album is phenomenal: Matheos
and Terry Brown (who did the mixing) achieved a wonderfully rich sound, which
showcases all instruments nicely - Michael Manring's virtuoso bass playing
in particular. Several song titles as well as the artwork cleverly refer to the
title of the album (I especially like the bottle of white-out on the disc
itself).

Conclusion:

The free review magazine published by the store where I bought the album
called "Away With Words" a gem, and I'm inclined to agree. This release contains
wonderfully atmospheric compositions, and is perfect for listening to during
a rainy afternoon (or during any other type of weather, really).

My rating: 88/100

-Marco van Leeuwen.