Mattiel : Customer Copy
No refunds necessary.
Atlanta’s Mattiel delivers a follow up to her 2017 debut Mattiel (Burger Records) with Customer Copy, a six song EP, to remind us what an exceptional talent she truly is. Those who have been left wanting for more of Mattiel’s soul inflected confessionals will be pleased to know that Costumer Copy continues in the same realm found on her debut. There are hints at different directions, but overall she has stuck with what got her to this place the first time around, albeit with a more critical voice toward some of the issues facing the world in 2019.
The first song, “Baron’s Sunday Best,” a stripped down track that wraps itself around Mattiel’s vocals, is not quite a protest song, but does shine a light on the privilege, greed and absurdity surrounding young Baron Trump. While “East Coast Swing” exposes the cultural and political shifts that seem to be sweeping across the United States of late. She pulls no punches with the line “Williamsburg ladies, having more babies, quietly adhering to the new right wing,” a much more biting subject matter than the yarns she spun on her first album. There is a timelessness to Mattiel’s voice, that when combined with her use of imagery and word play, take these songs to unexpected places. “Follow My Name” is a crackling soulful number with a nod to the the Girl Groups of the 1960’s. To these ears, it is an obvious choice for a single and an indication to what a stellar live show Mattiel must have. “Game Show” is pure power pop, invoking both The Strokes and The Shivvers, commenting on how modern life has devolved into some sort of surreal television show, that favours form over function. The delivery almost seems tongue-in-cheek allowing the songwriter to show a little levity. The standout track to me is “Midwestern Hotel,” which summarizes the best aspects of Mattiel’s strengths in one song. Whirling organs and ripping guitars add muscle that was otherwise absent on her debut, knocking this track up to one of Mattiel’s best and most emotional sounding songs to date.
With Customer Copy Mattiel has gone one step further from “the newly discovered treasure of 2017” to an artist we will be talking about for years.
You can pick up Mattiel’s Customer copy here at Burger Records.