Matteo Scumaci - Electrical Lines Review
Posted by JR Simmang on 09.19.2008
You don’t know him yet. Well, maybe some of you do, but you don’t know this quite yet. Matteo Scumaci, in his debut album Electrical Lines, gives us a taste of not only what it’s like to find something to get us through hard times, but there are also still good singer/songwriters out there.
Track List:
1. Chambermaid
2. Bridal Plans
3. Untitled Sketch
4. The Lakes
5. Debts
6. Hold Your Horses
7. Good Hands
8. Small Start
9. Bigmouth Strikes Again
10. Electrical Lines
11. Dear Mr. Warner
So, I’m sitting in my big chair in my living room and I’m thinking to myself, ‘where in the name of all things holy did the heavy indie pop electronica emotional highways of the 90’s go?’ Then all of a sudden, a package falls from the sky (figuratively speaking of course) and lands smack dab in the middle of my lap. I stand up, toss the album into my disc player and enjoy the next hour or so of my life. Matteo Scumaci debuts his album Electrical Lines at no better a time than now.
Remember when Radiohead was good and not in it for the money or publicity stunts? I do. In fact I cry about it every night. Well, Matteo Scumaci fills a gap for me. The album begins with a haunting guitar, high tenor vocal, string backed, one minute and some change long melancholic introduction. It’s moving and painful, but still beautiful. When you hear it, don’t worry; the disc is fine. Scumaci integrates some skip sounds I think make a statement that life is broken and imperfect. It’s a seamless intro into the next song on the list, which seems to be an homage to Radiohead and Muse, and maybe a little U2.
“Bridal Plans” is driven forward for the entire song. It’s all adrenaline with the steady rhythm in the drums, vocals a la Thom York. All you songwriters out there, take note. I think this song is one of the few perfectly constructed songs from start to finish. At just over five minutes, it begins right from track one with heavy lead guitar and starts with the chorus. The harmonies reverberate effortlessly off the melody, the bridge sinks the listener into a head bobbing throng. The vocal break in the middle of the song acts as a fulcrum to the seesaw. In the exterior, it’s a harsh look at commitment and the madness that drives people to fall into their plans. It ends on an up tempo note where Scumaci makes it a point that the only true plans can be achieved through a trial by fire.
After the rush of “Bridal Plans,” Electrical Lines sings us to sleep with a depressing lullaby. “Untitled Sketch” is a sobering look into evolution of feelings. It’s just Scumaci and his acoustic guitar. Undeniably beautiful, certainly saddening. This song is almost a foreshadow into the rest of the album. If you did fall asleep during “Untitled Sketch,” “The Lakes” woke you back up. The song misdirects you with THX style strings and wastes no time getting into the dirty lead guitar and forceful drums that mingle expertly with Scumaci’s vocals. Every song was handwritten by Scumaci, except for “Bigmouth Strikes Again,” which in my opinion was the weakest.
Scumaci keeps the energy level high through the remainder of his album. After “A Small Start,” he sinks back into the recesses of his emotional reading room. This is my personal favorite out of the eleven tracks. Scumaci experiments with syncopated rhythms and its highly reminiscent of The Strokes it plays its ups and downs with elegant bass and crashing cymbals. The background vocals give it a high- school energy. It’s the last big hurrah before settling down.
Electrical Lines ends with an innovative conclusion. Scumaci throws the listener off with the sound of a reeling tape, apparently in homage to silent film composer Mr. John McHale. It’s an incredible strings composition, something right out of Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and ends just as abruptly as it began. It starts from there, slowly building emotion, the cacophony of piano and strings, and finishes solemnly.
All in all, it’s a good album. I think the layout was polished, not a single song out of place if you ask me. It’s a little known fact that Scumaci was alone in this project, writing the songs with little more than digital recording equipment and elbow grease. Lyrically, he’s just cerebral enough to be called a modern poet. Go out, listen to him here: facebook.com.
The 411: Little known star, Matteo Scumaci, finished up work with Hanngai and wrote his own album, Electrical Lines. A solo project, Scumaci takes us on a voyage through the late 1990’s when bands like U2 and Radiohead were still making good music. Electrical Lines is fast paced enough to not be thrown off balance by the melancholic lyrics and oftentimes lullaby. It’s a good substitute for all things Indie Pop.
