You'd forgive Matthew Jay for hitching a ride on the nu acoustic wagon when it rolled into town. With his classic indie hairdo and his love of all things acoustic it makes sense - right? Wrong! For Matthew Jay's talent paraded on his debut 'Draw' frankly makes a mockery of recently hyped newcomers who prefer quiet to LOUD.
This softly spoken Welsh man (incidentally barely out of his teens) grew up with an acoustic guitar. You can imagine him shirking sports to practise or ditching homework to put the finishing touches to his latest composition.
This ruthless dedication plus hours spent in careful study of the classics - The Beatles, The Who, Nick Drake - have certainly paid off. But while bands at the moment have been caught churning out weak imitations of the above, Master Jay has carved himself out a very distinct and alluring style - no mean feat.
'Four Minute Rebellion' opens the album in rather bizarre fashion ("Three more inches of hair is a whole f**king world of rebellion") but one and a half minutes later, after you've heard him really stretch those vocal chords for the first time, you've already been exposed to enough of Jay's songwriting skills to be itching to hear more. And thankfully there's sufficient balance here between plugged and unplugged.
You can picture the kids bopping along to 'Let Your Shoulder Fall' (the recent single), 'Only Meant To Say' (surely a future single) and 'Become Yourself' (surely another single) at student discos while 'You're Always Going To Soon' and 'Please Don't Send Me Away' are both epic tearjerkers.
'Psychedelic folk' is how he describes his music and it's on 'Call Out My Name' -which wouldn't sound out of place on The Beatles' 'White Album'- and 'The Clearing' where this statement is most strongly backed up.
There are also signs that young Jay is not afraid to stray from the verse-chorus-verse formula with two beautiful pieces of music - the instrumental 'Molasses' and 'Remember This Feeling' featuring ex-Six By Seven guitarist, Sam Hempton - confirming, if it was needed, that Matthew Jay is a enduring talent with a very bright future ahead.
Make a note of this young man's name but don't worry if you forget it - you're bound to see it again when the albums of 2001 are shortlised... if not sooner.
by Chris Heath