In the past couple years, I've come around to the conclusion that Kristian Matsson aka The Tallest Man On Earth is incapable of making a bad song. His first album, Shallow Grave ($5 on Amazon), was one of my three favorite albums of 2008 along with Midnight Organ Fight by Frightened Rabbit and For Emma, Forever Ago by Bon Iver. In 2010, he released The Wild Hunt. A second album from an artist you love can be a tricky thing and many people believe in a sophomore slump for musicians (I'd call it regression to the mean, but that's the statistician in me getting in the way). Either way, I didn't want to get my hopes up too high, but frankly I think it blew his previous album out of the water, and it ended up being my favorite album of that year. Later in 2010, he also released a five song EP called "Sometimes The Blues Is Just A Passing Bird." I tend to ignore and/or forget about EPs usually because I like having a longer album. I'm sometimes guilty of this with this EP too, but the songs on it rank up there with some of his best. If anyone is a fan of his and doesn't own this EP, stop reading this entry and go buy it this instant. You won't regret it.
Well that brings us to 2012. Knowing that The Tallest Man On Earth had an album coming out this year, it was clearly one of my most anticipated albums of the year given the track record I described, but again I worry about building things up too much. A couple months back, I heard a live version of a song called "Little Brother" and immediately fell in love with it. Just a few days ago, another track was released, this time an actual studio version of a song called "1904." It's everything I've grown to expect and love ina Tallest Man On Earth song, and with that, I'm ready to throw caution to the wind. There is no doubt in my mind anymore that this will be one of my favorite albums of the year, just like every other time he has released an album. I'll just have to listen to these two songs over and over and over again to tide me over until June 12 when "There's No Leaving Now" is released.
You can listen to "1904" by clicking here (or download it by right-clicking) thanks to KEXP.
Also, if you get a chance to see him perform live, take it! I've seen him three times and each time he has been funny, engaging, and fantastic in all of his normal ways.
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