Sounds more like Coldplay than actual Coldplay do these days.
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Brad Shoup: Christian rock’s gradual discovery of dance rhythms precipitated their great leap forward. From Amy Grant’s chart salvos, to dc Talk’s savvy combination of gospel go-go and grunge, to the Newsboys’ house-pop, to Jars of Clay going full alt with drum programming, a little bounce keeps the fans from wandering too far afield. Late to the sweepstakes is Mat Kearney, the 2006 Dove Award winner for Rap/Hip-Hop Recorded Song of the Year (srsly). He’s got a great big sleeping bag of a tenor that slots nicely between Jack Johnson and Chris Martin. While he gets a lot of mileage out of that kick-drum/piano crotchet pattern, he uses it, unfortunately, to support his angsty bro-flow. While this type of red-carpet existentialism may be soul music to the likes of Ryan Tedder, I’m just here for the hooks. And what may be pop music’s first mention of menstrual cramps.
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Edward Okulicz: Look at Youtube — covers of this are springing up at an alarming rate. People are hearing something in this, and I’m not immune; I love how the amateurish tinkles mesh awkwardly but endearingly with Kearney’s dead-on Chris Martin-esque “oohs” and wide-eyed platitudes. The beat thuds clumsily but makes his wordplay sound nimble. Real emotion has gone into this and it actually shows, and works.
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Katherine St Asaph: “The voice at the centre of a Coldplay or Snow Patrol song tends to sound querulous and lonely amidst the bluster and waving lighters,” Tom Ewing wrote about a group that could well have been Mat Kearney on the bridge. There’s less bluster than reverb, people are too busy clapping to light their lighters, and smoke curls in where bombast would be, but Mat and audience sound the same, unmoored yet connected — again, on the bridge. The rest of the time, Mat sounds like he’s singing through a toilet paper tube.
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Jer Fairall: Clodplay.
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Jonathan Bogart: Populist self-pity taking the form of celebrity complaint? Sorry, pal, any chance you had of me sympathizing with your pleasant drum loops and backing oohs went out the window when you made it sound like red-carpet events are an equivalent evil to a lack of human connection.
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