Turktunes

Album Review

Matt Turk is an exemplary singer/songwriter from the New York area with a six-song CD overflowing with refined power pop that shows ingenuity and enthusiasm. "Jimmy" opens the CD with a hook that won't quit while conjuring images of angels taking a damaged human being from this realm to the next for a new start. "Buffalohead" is track three but should have switched places with the beautifully mournful "Never Said Goodbye." "Goodbye" brings things down a few notches while "Buffalohead" has intense boom boom drums from some "Indian Reservation" that Paul Revere & the Raiders once visited, and a very in controlled vocal by Turk. The contrast between this and the mandolin-colored "Never Said Goodbye" when matched against the bluesy "Angel in Disguise" shows a mastery of different pop styles. Southside Johnny or Eddie Money need a tune like "Angel in Disguise" in their repertoire. Turk's use of melody in the verse and hook shows a skilled voice with depth, complemented nicely by horn sounds. "Fifth of Faith" is in the same style as "Jimmy" but has more hope and promise, while the vibes and horns that propel "Favorite Tune" show an off-hand, free, and easy attitude chock full of vocal improvisation that really brings the song home, certainly not the studied discourse that is the Paul Simonish "Fifth of Faith.." As the late Lillian Roxon raved about the young and relatively unknown Jackson Browne in her book Rock Encyclopedia back in 1969, Matt Turk may strike you as just as talented a find.