I Love You, It's A Fever Dream - The Tallest Man On Earth: Review
Kristian Matsson
AKA The Tallest Man On Earth is a Swedish folk singer who came to prominence in 2008 when his debut album Shallow Grave took off in the indie scene given his tight similarities to Bob Dylan. But unlike a Greta Van Fleet approach Kristian did a great job replicating what Dylan did well and evolving it into the 21st century better than Dylan did himself. With a series of albums containing captivating performances and low-fi folk instrumentation he has been one of the most acclaimed artists in the true folk scene since he first arrived.
Review By Lavender:
If there is one thing Tallest Man On Earth has achieved for the past decade plus it's consistency. Album after album he drops some excellent folk music with a pretty fantastic base of tunes that are always at least enjoyable while their on. Not every album is as good as 2010's The Wild Hunt and not all the singles are as good as 1904 but he consistently delivers on solid full length projects and Fever Dream is no different.
Tune after tune here as I said earlier has a very solid base to build on. Each of the ten tracks has competent songwriting, low-fi production, good performances both vocally and instrumentally at least. Only a few track don't rise above these small expectations. There's A Girl is a touch on the short side from a songwriting perspective and serves as more of a theme fit than a highlight. My Dear has a vocal performance that is strangely mixed and doesn't come off as perfectly corrupted as much of his other delivery but it has some great structure that helps especially during the instrumental points. Finally the title track and closing moment I Love You, It's A Fever Dream is a good track but a little bit of a whimper to close off the project compared to what came before it.
The Running Styles Of New York was the fantastic lead single for this thing that has some fantastic texturing on his vocals and great lyrics. The overblown moments highlight the passion of his performance in an incredibly compelling way that I like a lot across this album. I'm A Stranger Now is a surprisingly up-tempo track that calls on Kristian's fast paced guitar playing and a sharp performance that includes some cool songwriting to match. Next up is the opening track Hotel Bar a soft tune that serves as more of an introduction without diving too deeply into everything that Kristian does well but delivering on it in a surface level way. What I've Been Kicking Around is one of the more spacious songs that gives him more room to vocalize without clipping the sound and includes some shimmery instrumentation along with it to round out a solid addition to the album.
My absolute favorite songs on this project came from the New York single and a trio of tracks in the second half that do great things. Waiting For My Ghost is a mix of the slower vocal performance and more up-tempo playing that is coupled with a fantastic performance from Kristian that makes this one of the loudest and most exciting moments. I'll Be A Sky is a fantastic ballad with great lyrics that don't really hit in a catchy way but sticking to his guns serve as interesting compositional elements.
Finally the best track here is All I Can Keep Is Now, it's a fantastic ballad and one of the only songs here with a true dramatic build. By the later half of the track the instrumentation and performance have picked up and gotten louder and more passionate making it the most complete listen here and a song that can go toe to toe with just about any of the best Tallest Man On Earth Songs here.
On I Love You, It's A Fever Dream Kristian is as consistent as ever and while it isn't his best album to date he once again proves his talents as a songwriter and his knack for excellent folk music with a virtually dud free project that has some highlights worth revisiting throughout. 7.5/10
Best Track: All I Can Keep Is Now
For more folk check out my review of Bibio's Ribbons here.
