Crystal Heights is the latest album by Former San Franciscan native Matthew Nowhere, who has decamped to the back woods of Nevada County, where he made this synth pop album with help from Lunar Twin, Bryce Boudreau, Chris Murphy and Antonio Family Singers.
The album opens with Transmission that is a HAL like computer voice introduction to the album, with pulsing synths preparing you for the album to come. Love Is Only What We Are is a totally familiar sounding slice of synth pop, with a laid-back feeling, already sounding like a future classic synth pop tune, full of love and all the imprecations needed for him to make you feel totally loved, with echoes of wistful Stephen Tin Tin Duffy or Boo Hewerdine songs. It breaks down to the bassline and strings, just before the lovers' eyes meet and they fall into each other's arms. This has grown on me loads since first hearing it as a single earlier in the year.
Echoes Still Remain although less strongly than Love Is Only What We Are has done, through the cascading keyboards, reflective lyrics seeking shelter from the rain and all the pain of modern living, echoes of times and places, hoping you can get back to the places that make you feel safe, totally chilled out.
Crystal Heights isn't in praise of just how high you feel after a Crystal meth binge, but more a slow synth pop song of love and togetherness, with a Harold Faltermayer feel to the way the synths work.
Aquatic Envelopment (Interlude) would be the music at the start of a session in a flotation tank before they switch the sound off, leaving you alone in the hyperbaric chamber with your thoughts, this would start your meditation off. The main single Transforming (FT Lunar Twin) is a soft synth pop song for the joys of Transforming yourself into something better than you started with, the child transforming into a teenager and then adult before their parent's eyes, musically I'm reminded of Blancmange and A-Ha.
Have You Ever Known asks the question if you've ever really known Love, a question he could be directing at so many of the current wave of people who seem to be permanently hating on everything they see and hear, just for once let love in and stop all the hatred.
Ruby Shards has a Prefab Sprout indie jangle pop feel, with 80's synths adding to the flavour with a slight wistful edge to the song, Matthew tries to piece your heart back together again.
Stellar Enfoldment (interlude) is a synth bed for a DJ to waffle over. Everything_s True is a phrase that seems in tune with our times, when all sorts of lies are treated as the absolute truth, you may just give in and say Everything_s True with slow evocative synths.
Silver Glass has a sheen to it, for a quite background soundtrack style minimalist synth song, no matter how many years have passed you may well be happy to be back together again.
Persist3nce (featuring Lunar Twin & The Antonio Family Singers) has darker vocals and very prominent cymbals for a laid-back synth ballad of isolation and loneliness, the backing vocals slowly rise, enveloping you in love and the presence of a positive reward for all your Persist3nce. The album closes with Crystal Emergence (Outro) a gentle come down tune that makes the synths sound like harps.
Find Out More at https://matthewnowhere.bandcamp.com/album/crystal-heights https://linktr.ee/matthewnowhere https://www.facebook.com/matthew.nowhere.108
