Track Listing

1. Poison Cup
2. To Go Home
3. Right In The Head
4. Post-War
5. Requiem
6. Chinese Translation
7. Eyes On The Prize
8. Magic Trick
9. Neptune's Net
10. Rollercoaster
11. Today's Undertaking
12. Afterword/Rag

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4054 in Music
• Released on: 2006-08-29
• Number of discs: 1

Album Description
The fifth M. Ward album and his most absorbing yet. Its songs unravel their world-wearied tales of life, love, and human kindness with an innate and special grace, helped in part by the very talented friends who join him on this record, such as Neko Case and Mike Mogis, as well as old "Monsters Of Folk" touring buddy Jim James (My Morning Jacket). Look for him on tour this fall.

Amazon.com
An enviable multitasker, M. Ward deftly charts the varied dusty soundscapes of Americana. Since 2005, he's toured with the White Stripes, coproduced the debut from Rilo Kiley's Jenny Lewis, compiled a John Fahey tribute, and relocated from Oregon to New Hampshire--and that's just to start. Somehow, he found time to knock out Post-War, his first full-band effort. Since 1999's haunting solo debut, Duet for Guitars #2, every Ward effort has been a departure from the one before. While 2004's Transistor Radio was inspired by the radio days of yore, it's clear in Post-War that Ward has modern times on his mind. Opening with an upbeat trio of songs, Ward launches across diverse musical territory before concluding with the slow blues of "Afterword/Rag." A driving rendition of Daniel Johnston's "To Go Home," featuring Neko Case, is an album highlight. Adding to Ward’s cast of indie-rock luminaries, Jim James (My Morning Jacket)--who appeared on Transistor Radio--joins in on a couple of originals, the rollicking "Chinese Translation" and gospel hoedown "Magic Trick," which begins and ends with a burst of canned applause. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Customer Reviews

A triumph - and one of the best of 2006
I happened to catch M. Ward in a live performance on "Letterman," and rushed out the very next day to buy the CD. I think the tune he performed was "Chinese Translation," which is among the many standouts on this excellent disc. I would rank this as the second-best release of the year so far - right beneath Neko Case's "Fox Confessor Brings the Flood" (and it's no surprise that Ms. Case herself makes a cameo appearance here - talent tends to attract talent). Trying to place this disc into a genre is a bit difficult, but I sort of like the "lo-fi indie folk" term used by another reviewer. But this is not coffee-house snooze music by any stretch of the imagination. On tunes like "Magic Trick" you can hear echoes of the loose, raucous sound that used to be the trademark of King Bruce and the E Street-ers themselves. Genre almost doesn't matter, though, with music this good. Buy it, slip it into your car stereo and take a long drive - preferably out in the country. I guarantee you'll keep it in your car player for weeks, if not months.

"They Just Don't Make Music Like This Anymore...."
I heard my father say that about his old music once, and I never thought I would ever feel the same way about music of my generation, but Matt Ward's music definitely comes from another, better place. It's his voice that will make you take notice first, a gravelly but sweet whisper that recalls Tom Waits or a young Greg Brown. His virtuosic but highly expressive guitar picking will appeal to folkies, hippies and guitar nerds. But his songs, it must be said, are timeless, having the instant feel of Tin Pan Alley standards or hillbilly classics of another age, yet sounding fresh and inspired. His latest is perhaps his most varied-sounding record--check out the great string section on the opening "Poison Cup," or the garage-surf instrumental "Neptune's Net"--but it still has the otherworldly, shimmering beauty of his already classic "End of Amnesia" and is just as accessible as the indie-rific "Transfiguration of Vincent." The songs and the arrangements are slightly more lively and fleshed-out--as opposed to the preponderance of "ditties" that filled out last year's slightly-disappointing-but-still-pretty-darn-good "Transistor Radio." Again, he shows his gift for interpreting the works of other talented songwriters with a rousing cover of Daniel Johnston's "To Go Home," but standout original tracks like "Chinese Translation" and the mesmerizing title track will make this the album that pushes him into the spotlight as one of the most inspiring songwriters and musicians around. Fabulous.

Beautiful album -- a Voice from the roots of Americana music
I just saw M. Ward last night in San Diego -- what a show! Every song was beautifully rendered, particularly the great songs from Post-War (the newest album). This album is rootsy -- reaching back into the best of the Blues, early jazz, country, folk -- and yet also modern in the sense of being "lo-fi" and "alt-rock" yet not so self-conscious as other practitioners of those "genres" of music. Buy this album and enjoy the mostly mellow, well-thought out tones and lyrics. And see him live with his talented backing band if you ever get the chance!