Matteah Baim- Laughing Boy
6/10

Best known for working along side CoCoRosie’s Sierra Casady in the ‘pansy metal’ band Metallic Falcons, Metteah Baim has gone solo due to the band’s permanent hiatus. New York based Baim has put her head to ground, drawing inspiration from her surroundings to construct an album which draws heavily from nature. Laughing Boy opens with the mental picture of a dense landscape, surrounded by steep cliff faces and tall crooked poplar trees. ‘Pagoda’ has a wisdom that floats in the breeze, like a dying leaf falling to the ground. Bridged by a short thirty second instrumental track, the song flows gracefully into ‘He Turned My Mind Around’, a dark, earthy song that has a cannibalistic feel to make one turn in his grave. Baim’s softly spoken vocals have a rich, pagan type tone, echoing beneath a well of vibrato and Gothic drum beats. After the haunting celebration of ‘Birthdays’ the album collapses, five of the remaining tracks are less than two minutes long and lack the complex instrumental arrangements of the opening few tracks (two of which run beyond five minutes). Baim’s voice quickly looses it’s captive poise, fading into the background like a lost rabbit. As the album flows into it’s middle reaches, the arrangements become very simple, giving Baim’s voice the open air to roam free. Unfortunately she doesn’t take advantage of the opportunity, her voice lacks the power to climb out of the comfort zone and falls a bit flat as the album comes to an end.
Nick

 

Posted by Nick Fulton under Album, Reviews
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