Henry St. - The Tallest Man On Earth: Review

The Tallest Man On Earth

is the singer-songwriter outfit of Swedish musician Kristian Matsson. He's been releasing music under the project since the late 2000's often with extensive critical acclaim, with his raw folk stylings drawing comparisons to Bob Dylan in particular. Henry St. is Matsson's 6th studio album and follows last year's covers album Too Late For Edelweiss. 

Review by Lav:

I've been a supporter and enjoyer of The Tallest Man On Earth for quite a long time and even though most of his best work predates my blogging years I still approach any new music he drops with quite a bit of anticipation. Even after coming away from the singles on the album with mixed feelings, I was looking forward to what would distinguish this record from the others in Kristian's discography. While the lyrics here delve into a lot of familiar topics, the album is distinguished nonetheless by a sense of contrast that borders on whiplash. 

Not only do the songs on here vary drastically in terms of production and style, but the tracklist arranges them in a way that seems purposefully chaotic. Listening through the record you'll find one major jump in sonic presentation after another throughout. 

The lead single Every Little Heart has grown on me a lot since it first dropped and I love the anguished vocal performance and dramatic guitars, not to mention it's been stuck in my head for weeks. It also comes alongside some other highlights in the opening run, though they all take a pretty different approach. Slowly Rivers Turn sports a full array of bouncy instrumentation with some great songwriting on hand. The more upbeat Tallest Man songs don't tend to be my favorites but I like this one quite a bit. I also quite like the opening track Bless You which has just about everything you could want in a Tallest Man song. The impassioned vocal performance peaks at just the right time and the instrumental develops from a gentle beginning to a rousing finale. 

There's another pretty great run of songs starting around the middle of the record with In Your Garden Still. It shifts wildly in energy from the previous few track to upbeat plucking and rattling percussion. The hook manages to feel genuinely romantic alongside its bouncy energy and it punctuates the song perfectly. 

Goodbye dabbles in lyrical themes of saying goodbye and wandering in hopes that the right town will find you are overdone, I can't help but appreciate how Kristian deploys them here. The song feels like a classic narrative folk track played with gentle touches of electric instrumentation that it's never had the chance to get before. It's all wrapped up well with Italy which feels VERY familiar for Kristian but you won't hear me complaining about that. I would be fine if he kept writing songs exactly like this forever. 

I wish the record was simple enough that I could say which types of songs are the highlights and which ones aren't, but the inconsistencies it has are more complicated than that. Major League and New Religion try to add layers to the record though neither succeeds. Major League just comes off as far too hokey to take seriously with both lyrics and instrumentation that break me out of the record's otherwise folky mystique. New Religion contains the most dramatic moment on the entire record in its second half but it doesn't really feel like it builds up that momentum effectively. 

Another trick the record deploys on occasion is ultra lo-fi production, particularly on the vocal side of things. This isn't anything new for Kristian's music but I think the way it's used on this record is more disruptive than supportive. Looking For Love has a soaring hook but I think it could have been much more impactful with clearer vocals. The most divisive song on the record is the second single Henry St. which is extremely raw and features sparse instrumentation cut off by soaring, crackly vocal peaks. Personally, I've given the song plenty of chances and I just don't like it. As soon as we get to the "I'm a little dude" lyrics I'm pretty much out. 

Despite its flaws, I think Henry St, is a pretty enjoyable record that reminds me of why I've always liked Kristian's music in the first place. His combination of impassioned vocals and keen songwriting instincts give him a high floor that he's pretty consistently able to build on. Like his best work in the past, the album manages to serve up both thrilling highs and gripping lows and I think it manages to succeed despite some tracklisting elements holding it back. 7/10

For more indie folk check out my review of boygenius' the record here