Dusted Reviews
Artist: Boduf Songs Album: Boduf Songs Label: Kranky Review date: Oct. 3, 2005 |
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Boduf Songs, like the Mountain Goats and Sentridoh, is really one guy, Mat Sweet. He brandishes a guitar and a powerful desire to avoid the title "singer-songwriter." He named the first track "Puke a Pitch Black Rainbow to the Sun" – don't call him a wuss! But sounds don't lie, and even a cursory spin of this brief disc (nine songs that last 10 seconds shy of a half hour) summons to mind not just his aforementioned fellow occupants of the fertile delta of denial, but singer-songwriters stretching back to the '60s. People whose memories are confined to the last few years will think of Nick Drake, those with more grey in their fringe might notice a similarity between Sweet's voice and Art Garfunkel's.
Sweet is good at his game. His melodies are unhurried and sticky enough to stay with you even if you spend some time away from them. His voice is plush and thick, just the instrument for delivering lyrics that are alternately sad and mad in a bookish way – another song is entitled "Oh Celebrate Your Vague Words and Coquettish Sovereignty."
Sweet does have a knack for the telling sonic detail that enhances both drama and intimacy; a bowed cymbal here, a droning keyboard there, some string squeak between the words. They keep work in tandem with the record's brief length to ensure that the music never lapses into tedium.
By Bill Meyer
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Lion Devours the Sun