M. Ward
Migration Stories
ANTI— [2020]
On the 10th solo album from M. Ward it’s unlikely that anyone who’s encountered his music over the recent decades is expecting any surprises. In the brief label bio, Ward describes this collection of Migration Stories as “characters in a dream,” which is also a way of describing the hazy contours and soft musical textures – at times like he’s singing through a blanket – that shapes his modern take on Americana and roots music.
While shaped by the experience of migration, Ward’s stories are dream-like as well, not the intimate details and horrors described in Alejandro Escovedo’s great 2018 release, The Crossing. Take “Heaven’s Nail and Hammer,” which imagines a floaty look at the night sky in the dessert with hints of surf guitar sound and a bed of doo-wah harmony vocals. For “Coyote Mary’s Traveling Show,” Ward recalls the classic R&B feel that dominated early rock & roll. One of new acoustic guitar instrumentals, “Stevens’ Snow Man,” has the feel of John Fahey, the folk giant.
In “Unreal City,” Ward comes awake to the album’s first solid beat, and backed by swarming synths, drum-machine hand claps, and a brief twangy guitar solo and comes as close as he’s going to a pop song feel. Which feels a bit unusual when you remember that he’s one half of the She & Him duo, with vocalist/actress Zooey Deschanel, and has recorded and produced albums for the likes of Jenny Lewis, Norah Jones, Neko Case, and Mavis Staples. But his heart is in his cover of “Along the Sante Fe Trail,” originally by Sons of the Pioneers in 1955. All of which suggests, that this solid collection of dreamy Migration Stories will no doubt please his current cadre of fans, but seems unlikely to attract the uninitiated or otherwise occupied.
Key Tracks: “Heaven’s Nail and Hammer” / “Unreal City” / “Coyote Mary’s Traveling Show”
Artists With Similar Fire: Jenny Lewis / Calexico / Andrew Bird
M. Ward Website
M. Ward Facebook
ANTI-
-Reviewed by Brian Q Newcomb
Brian Quincy Newcomb has found work as rock critic and music journalist since the early 80's, contributing over the years to Billboard Magazine, Paste, The Riverfront Times, and The St. Louis Post-Dispatch. [Brain sadly passed away on April 15, 2024, but his reviews live on as a lasting tribute to his impact on music journalism. We keep him on our minds with every review we post.]
- Brian Q. Newcombhttps://thefirenote.com/author/bnewcomb/
- Brian Q. Newcombhttps://thefirenote.com/author/bnewcomb/
- Brian Q. Newcombhttps://thefirenote.com/author/bnewcomb/
- Brian Q. Newcombhttps://thefirenote.com/author/bnewcomb/
