Big Inner
Big Inner is Matthew E. White's debut album, a timeless record told in seven songs that mingle memory with the rawness of any given human moment.
Matthew E. White's debut shares a number of traits with his hero Randy Newman's Good Old Boys: it's southern, definitely other, and full of tales about painfully human creatures yearning for transcendence, and finding that their flawed flesh-and-blood selves get in the way.
Soulful, funky and stunning, an instant classic that will - like the music it's inspired by - stand the test of time.
A gentle giant with an unassuming voice and a knack for distilling New Orleans R&B, Tropicália, and '70s soft rock into a sweet and smoky, Southern-style indie pop confection, Richmond, Virginia-based singer/songwriter and arranger Matthew E. White's Hometapes' debut, Big Inner, is as frustrating as it is cosmically transcendent.
As well as being the debut album from Richmond, Virginia’s Matthew E White, Big Inner is the vanguard release from Spacebomb, White’s Stax-and-Blue-Note inspired production house. Brought to wax by the nascent studio’s generously proportioned house band, these seven heavenly slices of country soul unfold with leisurely precision, with horns, strings, keys and guitars folded through White’s delicate baritone.
Seven days – and a lifetime – in the making, Matthew E White's burnished country-soul-gospel debut is a masterpiece, writes <strong>Kitty Empire</strong>
<p>Pop doesn't spring too many surprises these days, but Matthew E White's debut feels like a genuine revelation, says <strong>Alexis Petridis</strong></p>