Track Listing

1. End Of Amnesia
2. Color Of Water
3. Half Moon
4. So Much Water
5. Bad Dreams
6. Archangel Tale
7. Silverline
8. Flaming Heart
9. Carolina
10. From A Pirate Radio Sermon, 1989
11. Psalm
12. Ella
13. Seashell Tale
14. O'Brien/O'Brien's Nocturne

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #31753 in Music
• Released on: 2002-08-27
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .21 pounds

Amazon.com's Best of 2001
As one might expect from an album called End of Amnesia, a dateless aura exists within, as if it could have been recorded 100 years ago or 100 years from now. Portland, Oregon, resident Matt Ward's often captivating sophomore CD fuses a bucolic folk sound with a postmodern lo-fi sensibility. Ward's intriguing tunes are sung in hushed tones, and his fragile voice has an offbeat beauty even when he whispers. The atmosphere here is stark and mostly acoustic (save for "Flaming Heart," an odd little rock rave-up that appears midway, like an intermission), and an eerie calm pervades the album. Ward's music features deft, poised guitar playing, vivid lyrical imagery, and melodies that burrow into your brain--as if they'd been there all along. --Marc Greilsamer

Customer Reviews

#2 Ward Highway: Genius
If you are reading this then it is fair to presume you are out on the Ward highway and unless I miss my guess, traveling from Transistor Radio and Transfiguration back to the End of Amnesia. You have been hearing some fabulous sounds and incredible tunes on your way here and let me be the first to tell you that more of the same awaits you here in Amnesia-ville. In fact, this may be the best of his four solo albums and that in itself is a strong statement considering the one that preceded this one (Duet) and the two that followed (Transitor and Transfiguration). Ward is a musical genius, no doubt, and this collection of songs from a wholeistic perspective may be the clearest manifestation of that genius. His tune "half moon" simply has to be heard to be believed. "Carolina" is gorgeous and "seashell tale" defies description. But if I were standing in the front row of a Ward concert and calling for him to play a tune, it would be "bad dreams" (the opening chords to this song have to be heard to be believed: so subtle, so deep, so resonant). I think it is the best song Ward has ever written and immediately after he played it, I would yell up at him to play "fool says"(Transfiguration) and then "from debbie's stairs" (Duet) and then "here comes the sun again" (Transistor) and then "seashell tale" (Amnesia) and then "outta my head" (Transfiguration) and then "lullaby + exile" (Transistor). But if Ward leaned down to me and said that he would play only one of his four albums for us tonight from front to back, I would pick End of Amnesia. Everything Ward touches shines with a depth and beauty that has been missing from modern music for far too long but like I said, End of Amnesia would be my pick. It might well be the best complete album ever keyed and picked and sung by a man whose best musical work (if this is even conceivable) may well lie ahead of him. He is 31 years old; he is an incredible musical genius; and he has a talent and a musical muse that seems to be just getting untracked.

Highly reccomended.
"End Of Amnesia" makes you feel like you're sitting on the back porch of some log cabin in the mountains, and after hearing this cd, I wouldn't mind feeling that way all the time. This is a collection of serene, melodic, acoustic tunes, which blends country, folk, bluegrass, and modern abstract rock all together. This is a cd that makes itself appear sparse on the surface, but is actually maticulously composed. It is sophisticated, but not inaccessible or overly abstract. The albums' energy peaks with "flaming heart", a catchy, upbeat country song featuring a rare instance of electric guitar. Mellowness peaks on "O'Brien"(part 1 of track 15), where he is just about whispering the lyrics. I find this cd to be extremely enjoyable and relaxing, and I highly reccomend it for anyone looking for some good chill out music.

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I don't want to play it anymore because I don't want the feeling to go away.
Every 10 years you find music that comes across as a revelation. For me, in 1989 it was the Doors, in 1996 Gillian Welch, and now M. Ward. This album has the voice of Louis Armstrong, the gentleness of Nick Drake, the delivery of Roy Orbison, the class of Perry Como, the sweetness of Neil Young, the boogie woogie of Jerry Lee Lewis.