The Broken Man is an album created for the most specific of moods; when you’re desperate for those minor keys in your ears. Your heartache, torment and sadness are welcome here.
The Broken Man is an album created for the most specific of moods; when you’re desperate for those minor keys in your ears. Your heartache, torment and sadness are welcome here.
Matt Elliott is a hard-working hermit. He’s a musician working the night shift; avoiding exposure and quietly leaving a trail of records behind to be tenderly discovered. Unassuming, Elliott’s work appears in different guises, and after his long-awaited return to electronic brittle beats in the Third Eye Foundation, he’s back simply under his own name, for The Broken Man; a dark folk album, heavy with sorrow. With his trilogy venture closed, this album is a new chapter for Matt Elliott. But these pages are caked in suffering; this is by no means, a cheery comeback album.
An eleven minute opener; Oh How We Fell is a giant leap into misery. An ominous introduction complete with Spanish guitar, a faint chorus of horns and the ringing of church bells hang in the air. Three minutes in we hear the first haunting lyrics; Elliott’s deep drone draws comparison to a sleepy Leonard Cohen. The likes of This is For and Dust, Flesh and Bones have fragile, warm yet soaring melodies. But it’s Elliott’s soul-crushing lyrics that send the songs to a far darker place.
The amazingly titled, if just a tiny bit overemotional, If Anyone Tells Me ‘It’s Better to Have Loved and Lost Than to Never Have Loved at All’ I Will Stab Them in the Face, is sung with a twisted cruelty. Complete with stirring, dramatic piano and the appearance of atmospheric, eerie drones that scatter the entire album.
If you can disconnect from all the anguish, you’ll find there’s true beauty in this album. You hear Elliott’s hand franticly waving across frets and keys creating fast, chaotic melodies with emotion and precision. The Broken Man is an album created for the most specific of moods; when you’re desperate for those minor keys in your ears. Your heartache, torment and sadness are welcome here.