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| Album Rating: A- |
Nobody likes to talk more about love than heartbroken men with guitars. If one of these men shows up at your housewarming party or your grandmother’s funeral, you better hide anything with strings from sight; otherwise, the odds are better than good you’ll be there for the next four hours as you hold his hand through a series of flings, betrayals, and heartbreaks. But what makes or breaks a singer-songwriter when he’s singing (and songwriting) about matters of the heart? After all, we make faces at our beanie-clad cousin behind his back, but somehow John Mayer still sells millions of records. As
Last of the Great Pretenders demonstrates, reaching out to listeners may be the deciding factor: even if its subject matter paves the road too traveled, Matt Nathanson’s latest is an invigorating ride. It crackles with poetry, electricity, and emotional heft.
