CD: M Ward: Transfiguration of Vincent
(Matador)·More pop CD reviewsIn the past couple of years, there has been the distinct sense that the genre of Americana is reaching critical mass. Barely a week goes by without the arrival of another...
View ArticleCD: M Ward, Transistor Radio
(Matador)Anyone who has ever tuned a radio dial and discovered a melody crackling through interference will recognise the special appeal of Transistor Radio. The Portland, Oregon-based M Ward describes...
View ArticleCD: M Ward, Post-War
(4AD)After four albums that matched M Ward's warm, vocal rasp with his folksy guitar finger-picking, the Californian has made what he's calling his "first band record".Perhaps inspired by his...
View ArticlePop review: M Ward: Hold Time
(4AD)From unassuming, folky beginnings, Portland-based troubadour M Ward has grown bolder with each album, an evolution that continues on his seventh solo offering. So while For Beginners makes a...
View ArticleLaura Barton meets M Ward
Beneath the mumbly, muted exterior of the American singer-songwriter M Ward lies a man of many passions. In our brief time together he admires not only the Sam and Dave track spilling out of the cafe...
View ArticleHow music can reach out and touch us
Music gives us moments when – with a lyric, a chord change, a note or a drumbeat – a hand seems to come out and take our ownFor weeks now, the walls of London Underground stations have been plastered...
View ArticleM Ward: A Wasteland Companion – review
(Bella Union)The riddle asks: if you replace the head of your broom, then replace the handle, have you still got the broom you started with? So it is with M Ward and his relationship to American music...
View ArticleM Ward: A Wasteland Companion – review
(Bella Union)He might be best known for his work with Zooey Deschanel (as She & Him) and as a member of supergroup Monsters of Folk, but it would be a mistake to overlook the understated solo...
View ArticleM Ward – review
Koko, LondonMatthew Ward is set to bid farewell to his cult status. After a decade spent forging a solo career in the cosy backwater of the US alt-country and indie-folk scenes, the singer-songwriter...
View ArticleShe & Him: Volume 3 – review
(Domino)Zooey Deschanel and M Ward are on to their third album as She & Him (not counting their Christmas efforts), and there's not much in the way of surprises – this is swinging country-pop with...
View ArticleMavis Staples: Livin’ on a High Note review – bring on the great and the good
(Anti)There’s the feel of a Pitchfork lifetime achievement award about Mavis Staples’ 13th album, with a number of indie’s great and good, including Nick Cave and Bon Iver, writing the songs. No...
View ArticleM Ward: Migration Stories review – expanding the borders of Americana
(Anti-)The vocals are perpetually reverbed and the guitars are always twangy, but on his 10th studio album, the singer-songwriter stretches his legs a littleA quarter of a century ago, on the song...
View ArticleM Ward: Think of Spring review – a spectral tribute to Billie Holiday
(Anti-)The ever-questing Matthew Ward turns his minimalist attentions to Holiday’s lush 1958 album Lady in SatinWest coast singer-songwriter Matthew Ward stalks Americana circles in many guises; as...
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