Singer records self-titled 4th album in Scotland
He’s the Californian boy with side-swept bangs and a certain quirk.
He’s been “Mr. Pitiful,” walking through streets, fields and shores with a crooked bowtie and kick drum backpack.
He’s lived through a “Cold December” and added a little pep and “la la la” to a mysterious, estranged romance.
And now, four albums into his eight-year career, he’s repackaging himself. He’s looking to be a great — to take to the genesis of folk rock.
Matt Costa is the indie kid with an acoustic guitar who has grown his brand to a roots folk, sometimes-eccentric sound.
His latest, released Tuesday, is a self-titled album that toys with the songs we sing and folds in orchestral backings and warmer chorus lines. It was recorded in Glasgow, Scotland, with a team of producers tied to Belle and Sebastian, an indie pop group based in the city across the pond.
Costa has worked to keep his music in his hands. His first album, “Songs We Sing,” was self-produced and self-released. It housed many of the artist’s most famous singles: “Yellow Taxi,” “Astair,” “Cold December” and “Wash Away.”
It was then rereleased a year later, in 2006, by Brushfire Records, Jack Johnson’s label.
The singer/songwriter has been with Brushfire since — three fresh records later.
Johnson’s record family is close-knit in rhythm, vibe and feel. It’s 10 artists, including himself, that circle around the Jack Johnson cool. They’re driven by guitar and a little oddball percussion with a feel-good, upbeat hook.
G. Love & Special Sauce, one of Brushfire’s own, sings about “Peace, Love and Happiness” with a banjo and a harmonica in its latest single, and Jack Johnson muses about “Banana Pancakes.”
Costa has always been of the same mold. But his fourth album is reaching further than the pancakes. It’s titled “Matt Costa,” perhaps to rebrand himself.
In an interview with MTV Hive, Costa said he wanted to avoid an “American-sounding” record, and focus back on those who pioneered his genre.
“You start to realize a lot of it came from the immigrants from all sorts of countries — a lot are English ballads,” Costa said in the interview.
Tony Doogan is the Belle and Sebastian producer behind the newest “Matt Costa.” Chris Geddes, the band’s keyboardist, also had a hand in the album’s arrangements.
Costa draws on the same kind of melodies. He shutters from the ironically upbeat “Mr. Pitiful” and falls into rainy day listening. His vocals are more hollow and less accessible than before, and the instrumentals drive the majority of the work.
There are strings and harmonicas and piano and the creeping hint of rainmakers. The listing strikes a difficult balance: It sounds like a live show, without the pitch problems and distant echoes of a live recording. You dream up Costa sitting on a stool with his guitar and maybe an egg-shaped shaker recording each song.
The first track in line, “Loving You,” sets the sound. There are horns. Not loud horns, but horns. They carry the love song — a song that inspires visions of baby birds flying above Costa’s head, in an indie way.
“Shotgun” sounds like an English folk rock ballad. No song on the album particularly identifies as a 30-year-old from California, but “Shotgun” really achieves the Scottish inspiration.
There’s a steady, peppy clap and a harmony that strikes back to bands like Belle and Sebastian.
“Clipped Wings” has a flute. At times, it sounds like it belongs in the movie “Bambi.” It sticks out.
“Ophelia” is all about the harmonica. It’s sad but light-hearted, pulled together by a constant, twinkling backbeat that sets the feel of the track.
Costa set out, abroad, to take on a new personality. He wanted a new sound, a new voice. He did it.