Matt Elliott comes to add a new element to his science of lamentation with the appearance of the saxophone used as you have never heard it. Forget John Coltrane, here it is not a question of virtuosity but more simply and more accurately of a contribution to the narrative of these ample songs, with a meticulous and patient construction. The End Of Days, in the opening, all in appeasement, in languor raises something remarkable in the Matt Elliott of 2022, it is this will to play with the Manichaeism in these songs neither only grey, nor totally black.
Matt Elliott sings this infinitely small space, this in-between between intense joy and absolute sorrow, this border between the unspeakable and the shared. Hence this feeling of nervousness, of urgency that runs through each of these compositions. January's Song reminds us how much Matt Elliott builds each of his records as a sequence of musical movements, there is something almost baroque in this second title, something of fin de siècle, something not so far from the formulas of a Santiago De Murcia. And then there are these titles that say it all like this Song Of Consolation or Healing A Wound Will Often Begin With A Bruise, maybe one of the most beautiful tracks of his discography. With him, we feel more and more this orchestral temptation, as if he was trying to reconcile his alias Third Eye Foundation to what he achieved in his solo career. Listening to Matt Elliott's records is not only listening to an artist who would have abandoned the electronic dimension in his work. It is much more than that, it is to see an artist who will leave a different imprint, Flowers For Bea is undoubtedly the most beautiful example.