In Tune With Raw Emotion, Mattiel Adds to Southern Canon With ‘Georgia Gothic’
MODERN BLUES ARE IN A TOUGH SPOT — and in many records, crisp production robs its balladeers of their raw emotion, creating something soullessly nostalgic rather than actual expressions of a breaking heart. The genre requires its singers to be both vulnerable and mysterious, and when artists fail to pull off the balancing act, their records sound like a tourist trip to the south. But for the Georgia-based songwriting duo Mattiel, composed of Mattiel Brown and Jonah Swilley, blues is in their blood.
For two records and a dynamite EP, Mattiel has been exploring the genre authentically with its deep roots in American culture. Both of Mattiel’s prior album covers feature different incarnations of Americana: Brown stands atop a horse in the desert on their debut; there is a winding mess of machinery dwarfing a lone human on Satis Factory. On Georgia Gothic’s artwork, Brown is no longer alone; she and Swilley stand side by side dressed as devils in a swamp, as if the listener took a wrong turn off the interstate and stumbled upon a dark ritual.
Georgia Gothic, the band’s new album releasing March 18, finds the band opening their sound up to modern garage-pop notes while keeping true to their established mission: haunting, hard-hitting, and blues-rock-anchored by Brown’s witty lyrics. Brown switches between moods effortlessly, penning ballads that seem destined for a showdown in the desert and shifting to more personal tracks for a perfect snapshot of modern Southern Gothic.
“Jeff Goldblum” leaves Brown’s pictures of rugged terrain for bathroom meetings and heartbreak. Her lyrics are quippy as always, comparing her ideal heartbreakers to the ’80s star and Washington Irving's Ichabod Crane over double-tracked vocals. “Lighthouse” continues in a similar mode, with a soaring chorus instantly etched into my brain as an anthem. With each refrain, it feels sweeter and sweeter; the relatively simple lines, “I am the lighthouse / I’ll turn you around,” seem grand with passionate delivery and accompaniment. It’s hard not to think of Fleetwood Mac and ’70s FM as a whole.
This poppier side of the band highlights the contributions of John Congleton’s (Earl Sweatshirt, Sleater Kinney, Angel Olsen) engineering along with Swilley’s production. The tracks reward repeat listens with different textures percolating behind the surface of Brown’s voice. They hit that sweet spot when you can hear every instrument (which features garage/blues mainstays like organ and prominent guitar), but none of it sounds overproduced. The world Brown creates through her lyrics and imagery is so provocative that it dominates almost all else.
Outside of these diversions, Brown is back in outlaw mode. “On The Run” is country-inspired, with Brown’s drawl and song structure feeling in place with Johnny Cash or Willie Nelson’s world. Later on, “You Can Have It All” has Swilley unleashing a jagged guitar solo. “Blood in the Yolk” is as catchy as it is foreboding with its images of intrusions and impurity; peeled skin and picked locks. Brown’s vocals sound like both a warning and siren call as a military-like drum keeps pace.
A huge highlight is the Bob Dylan riff, “Subterranean Shut In Blues.” It reads like a found poem with various phrases remixed and re-appropriated from Dylan’s classic to become an ode to staying in and being disconnected. But instead of Dylan’s rapid-fire delivery, Brown’s vocals slink forward, backed by her classic ensemble with some tasteful horns. She gives Dylan the same treatment as he gave early 20th century folk and blues. “How It Ends” wraps the album up with an upbeat, White Stripes-esque rocker that seems sunny until you realize Brown is gleefully narrating a death scene.
On Georgia Gothic, the line between southern hospitality and hostility is frequently blurred across 11 tracks on a blood red vinyl.
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