Artist Mat Kearney
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Mat Kearney
What happens to the part-folk-pop, part-kinda-rap music that Mat Kearney pioneered when it’s ready to grow up a little more? Well, judging from Kearney’s latest album, City Of Black & White, it’s time to forge ahead into full-on adult-contemporary. City has enough sincerity to make up (slightly) for the lack of surprises, and the disc doesn’t feel produced to death. Maybe because of Kearney’s falsetto-tipped hooks on songs like the single “Closer To Love” and the abundance of gentle synths and piano, it sounds like his new comfort zone is a bit between Coldplay and U2’s more ponderous moments, but without either band’s urge to write grandiose hooks. It’s a soundtrack for a pleasantly purgatorial 30s.
Updated 09/16/2009

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