CJ MUSIC REVIEW
Matt Moran's HEARTACHE KID (Deluxe Edition)
by Adam Van Winkle
Matt Moran does many good things in songwriting and music. For me, at least, he's hit album for album, track for track, no skips.
One of my favorite lines in all of music comes from track 5 on his 2022 album, Heartache Kid. "One Good Thing One Time" opens with the achingly poignant and simple and perfect line, "I want to do one thing good just one time." Killer.
That track doesn't get a new treatment on the newly released Deluxe Edition of Heartache Kid, but that's okay because there is a whole lot of other cool stuff to dig into. Four years after the album's original release, 12 new tracks are added to make a 22-song banger. Live versions for "Palomino," "Tequila or Me," "Rodeo Clown," "Break Her Heart," and "This Can't Be It," are included along with acoustic session versions of "Black Sedan," "Tequila or Me," "This Can't Be It," "Palomino," and the eponymous "Heartache Kid." "The Hardest Part of Living" also comes along as an existential acoustic lament: "Nobody tells you the hardest part of living is just knowing those things you'll never do." (Note: the six acoustic tracks were released to your streaming devices as 2023's Heartache Kid: Acoustic Sessions.)
The live versions add a new exuberance as Moran and the band (the Palominos) play to the back wall of the club, offering something a bit more urgent than the crisper studio originals. This is especially heard on the "Tequila or Me" and "This Can't Be It" live renditions.
All of this is great because Matt Moran is one of the best songwriters there is, period. The solo and full band variations are superbly played. What else could you want?
But there's more because this Deluxe Edition contains a new favorite. "Two Dollar Bills," to my knowledge a previously unreleased masterpiece of grit. The song opens with a electronic whipping beat, a prelude to the beaten down speaker's outlook:
I live here in Beckham County
We're water district number one
Got a house outside of Carter
And a garden full of onions
I can't grow no tomatoes
They just die there on the vine
Maybe next year I'll try okra
Maybe next year I'll be fine
And I can see for miles and miles around
These lyrics move me with authenticity. They reek with it. Seeing for miles and miles around in far western Oklahoma is an oppressive image. One can see for miles because there is nothing, not even hope, in sight to obstruct the view. He knows he's "too old to start a life." Onions, bitter root, are the only things that grow where fruit won't ripen on the vine.
The speaker of the song sees so far he can see where he'll be buried, beside his folks, in this rugged landscape because nothing else seems like it could happen in this life. Seems like an apt addition to an album called Heartache Kid. To my mind, approximate and internal rhymes along with perfect phrasing is the secret to great songwriting. In "Two Dollar Bills," Moran carries off water/Carter and onions/one and grow/tomatoes/okra and vine/fine/miles/around as if they are exact fits.
Anyway, of course Heartache Kid (Deluxe Edition) is worth your time, worth your listen. In fact, it's worth many listens because Moran continues to stun with his existential sad country sounds. This is an already great album made even better.
One of my favorite lines in all of music comes from track 5 on his 2022 album, Heartache Kid. "One Good Thing One Time" opens with the achingly poignant and simple and perfect line, "I want to do one thing good just one time." Killer.
That track doesn't get a new treatment on the newly released Deluxe Edition of Heartache Kid, but that's okay because there is a whole lot of other cool stuff to dig into. Four years after the album's original release, 12 new tracks are added to make a 22-song banger. Live versions for "Palomino," "Tequila or Me," "Rodeo Clown," "Break Her Heart," and "This Can't Be It," are included along with acoustic session versions of "Black Sedan," "Tequila or Me," "This Can't Be It," "Palomino," and the eponymous "Heartache Kid." "The Hardest Part of Living" also comes along as an existential acoustic lament: "Nobody tells you the hardest part of living is just knowing those things you'll never do." (Note: the six acoustic tracks were released to your streaming devices as 2023's Heartache Kid: Acoustic Sessions.)
The live versions add a new exuberance as Moran and the band (the Palominos) play to the back wall of the club, offering something a bit more urgent than the crisper studio originals. This is especially heard on the "Tequila or Me" and "This Can't Be It" live renditions.
All of this is great because Matt Moran is one of the best songwriters there is, period. The solo and full band variations are superbly played. What else could you want?
But there's more because this Deluxe Edition contains a new favorite. "Two Dollar Bills," to my knowledge a previously unreleased masterpiece of grit. The song opens with a electronic whipping beat, a prelude to the beaten down speaker's outlook:
I live here in Beckham County
We're water district number one
Got a house outside of Carter
And a garden full of onions
I can't grow no tomatoes
They just die there on the vine
Maybe next year I'll try okra
Maybe next year I'll be fine
And I can see for miles and miles around
These lyrics move me with authenticity. They reek with it. Seeing for miles and miles around in far western Oklahoma is an oppressive image. One can see for miles because there is nothing, not even hope, in sight to obstruct the view. He knows he's "too old to start a life." Onions, bitter root, are the only things that grow where fruit won't ripen on the vine.
The speaker of the song sees so far he can see where he'll be buried, beside his folks, in this rugged landscape because nothing else seems like it could happen in this life. Seems like an apt addition to an album called Heartache Kid. To my mind, approximate and internal rhymes along with perfect phrasing is the secret to great songwriting. In "Two Dollar Bills," Moran carries off water/Carter and onions/one and grow/tomatoes/okra and vine/fine/miles/around as if they are exact fits.
Anyway, of course Heartache Kid (Deluxe Edition) is worth your time, worth your listen. In fact, it's worth many listens because Moran continues to stun with his existential sad country sounds. This is an already great album made even better.