Matthew Good — White Light Rock & Roll Review

Matthew Good has definitely been studying at the altar of Neil Young. First he's a folkie, then he's in a rock band, then he's doing solo acoustic records, then symphonic ones... and now we get White Light Rock & Roll Review, technically Good's second proper solo record.

But while Young was always able to shift effortlessly from "Sugar Mountain" to "Ohio," the world hangs too heavily on Good's shoulders for sweet asides. Indeed, although White Light is most definitely Good’s most rocking record, it’s not really a rock record at all — it's a protest record. Songs like the first single "Alert Red Status" and "North American For Life" buzz with well-sharpened vitriol and "Blue Skies Over Bad Lands" is probably the closest Good will ever come to creating his own "Cortez The Killer."

In a way, Good’s fuck-it-all recklessness has worked itself out brilliantly. Good's still got a long, long way to go before he can own his own model train company, but White Light is perhaps his most incisive, effective album.

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