So I've been giving a listen to Mark Martyre's Down, Record for the last couple of weeks, and I gotta say I really dig the sound. Though the voice isn't anywhere near the same, the music itself reminds me a lot of Tom Waits, who I absolutely adore. The folk-y, almost country kind of sound can be uplifting, or sweetly sad. I try to go into these reviews free of bias, but honestly when something reminds me of something I love, there is a good chance I'm going to love it too. That is absolutely the case here.
First off, the recordings are clean. Impressively clean. The production on this release is pretty much impeccable. Mark's voice is generally smooth, but its enjoyable even when its not. He's clear and you can understand everything he says. The composition is so simple and beautiful that it borders on magnificent. The songs vary in length between roughly three to seven minutes, which is nice because it adds a bit of extra variety.
Audio: Like The Horizon by Mark Martyre
Most really good music plays with your emotions, be it lyrically or in the way its composed. Amazing music plays you from both fronts, where the music evokes just as much emotion as the lyrics do and you're left feeling charged with whatever the emotions of the song happened to be. Sometimes sadness or longing, other times anger or aggression or fear, often times joy or love or passion. Whatever the emotions, you know its good because it does its job and you feel it. Mark's songs are very much like that for me. I wanted to pick a song in particular as an example, but I found this to be a difficult task. After much deliberation I've decided they're all good examples.
Basically if you loved Tom Waits you are very likely to at least like Mark Martyre, and I much recommend you get it even if you've never heard of Tom Waits. Chances are you'll love it anyway. Final verdict? Get it, for sure.
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