November 2008

Mine
Matt York

Review by William Ruhlmann
Matt York grew up in Oakville, Ontario, near Toronto, but from the sound of his second album, Mine, he should have been raised across the border in Detroit. York is a blue-eyed soul singer who shows off the influences of Stevie Wonder and (on "Someday") Bob Marley. He creates sinuous grooves based on acoustic guitar riffs or the kind of electric piano sounds that used to fill records in the 1970s, then sings over them in a tenor voice full of sand and butterscotch. That's after he leads things off with "Death Came a Knockin'," an a cappella gospel number. York sounds like the sort of artist who developed his tastes listening to old records and never heard anything made after about 1975. Music fans who feel the same way, and who have spent decades wondering why nobody makes albums like that any more, will be happy to hear him.