Matt Dolphin - Eighth House

by Helen Tipping

published: 9 / 10 / 2012

Label: Blang Records
Format: CD

Melancholic, but promising debut solo album from Kent-based singer-songwriter, Matt Dolphin

Review

Matt Dolphin, ex Sergeant Buzfuz, is releasing his first solo album this October, following a mini album, 'Turning Soil', last year. Based in Kent, and mainly playing in the South East, Matt continues in the current trend for singer-songwriters, but with a darker undertone to his songs. He’s certainly in love with words and puts them to good use, with lyrics that aren’t always about what you think they are, or at the very least give you the opportunity to read into them what you will. 'Black Psalm' could be a dark love song, or it could be about the “End Days”, the running out of oil. 'Wormwood' is definitely a song about drinking away your sorrows and. although a bit too jazzy for me, the sound worked for the subject matter. I liked the stripped down sound of 'Patterns and Demons' and the simplicity of the singing. The real stand out song was 'Deptford Shore', which has already been released as a single for download. It is wistful and sad, a song for the end of summer, even if it is based in Deptford, an area I know quite well, I’m sure that the good folk of Deptford can share in the melancholy many of us feel at the end of summer, or of a relationship, and the tinge of regret at the start of autumn So I found the album to be a mix of songs I liked, and some I would probably skip through, but that’s true of any album, even by some of my favourite artists. I would probably make the effort to go and see him play and think that he’s one to keep an eye on – he may be Kent’s answer to Richard Hawley!