Matt & Kim – Grand

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Album Reviews • Monday November 16th, 2009 • 12:45 pm

Matt & Kim have garnered a lot of buzz in 2009. They first met while attending Brooklyn’s Pratt Institute, both originally hailing from nearby states. (Matt Johnson is from Vermont, while Kim Schifino grew up in Rhode Island.) Music from their debut, self-titled album Matt & Kim helped them gain some attention at music festivals and even earned their videos some airtime on MTV2 and MTV Europe. The buzz began a couple years ago now, but it’s their latest album, Grand, that’s really made them pop indie favorites of 2009.

Let’s face it: “Daylight” is catchy. As the first single and introduction to the latest compilation of Matt & Kim songs, it raises spirits and completely immerses listeners in the quirky, piano and drum-driven stylings of the duo making boy-girl bands all the rage again. Matt & Kim capture the fun of pop music without tipping over into something too saccharin or overproduced. Their album is generally optimistic without coming off as naïve, leaving room for tracks “Good Ol’ Fashion Nightmare,” a song that includes lyrics about a little bit on inner-city chaos and mischief, and yet Matt sings them so brightly, it’s easy to miss the bit off cynicism sneaking into music that really just makes inspires a lot of handclapping to the beat.

Matt & Kim leave such a great first impression that it takes about three or four tracks to realize that they’re milking the same staccato jauntiness and bright jamming for all its worth, with little variation. What’s present on Grand is infectious, top work, but doing one of type of thing well still gets stale after a while. Listening through the album the first time, it’s easy to tune out of the specifics of each track, because they all sound so similar.

The growth between their debut and Grand is intriguing, but ultimately, the extra electronic elements and changes to their style don’t push very far. It’s hard not to wonder what Matt & Kim would have sounded like had they waited little longer to create a sophomore effort, or to think that maybe the third album will really find them in their element, experimenting more and changing up the pace from track to track, unafraid of even more variety.

Grand isn’t a bad album. In fact, it’s really solid. It’s fun and well-made, but it isn’t quite as imaginative as the music videos for their singles might lead people to believe, for instance. This is what makes being a band with a lot of hype great and simultaneously problematic: people expect more. Matt & Kim have a great knack for catching listener attention, but their sophomore album doesn’t fully establish them as being at the forefront what’s new and innovative in indie-pop music. They do, however, have the potential, and perhaps their next effort will prove they’ve finally found their element.