Mat Kearney – “Better Than I Used to Be”

I always get Mat Kearney and Mat Kerekes confused.

 

Kearney kind of lost me. I really loved those first two records, and the third moved in a poppier direction but still kept a lot of his idiosyncrasies. The last one was a little underwhelming, and this song sounds like more of the same.

 

pretty much my thoughts. tho the last one had some dope tunes with "one black sheep" and "los angeles".

city of black & white is my favorite front to back, but nothing left to lose has his best songs imo. "what's a boy to do" is a contender for my favorite song of all time. i remember crying at like four separate points when i first heard it as a kid

 

Definitely some jams on the last one. I liked about half of it. "Heartbreak Dreamer," "One Heart," and "Shasta" were great too. It just seemed a little disjointed and like he wasn't sure what direction he wanted to go in. "Heartbeat" was the lead single from that, though, and that's really a nothing song, so maybe the rest of the record will be decent this time too.

Nothing Left to Lose will always be my favorite. Love so many of those songs. But City is pretty stacked too.

 

Exact same.

 

It's a bummer. For most of high school and college, he was one of my favorite artists. I just feel like he's really chasing trends now.

 

Man, I adored him in high school. Bulletproof and Nothing Left to Lose were so good. Was constantly telling people about him. Now, I didnt even bother to listen to this new song.

 

I listened, but I don't have any desire to listen again.

 

yea he said his goal on the last one was to "make a record that paul simon and kanye would make together". but i don't think he fully realized the singer-songwriter or the hip hop aspects, so it just seemed directionless.

and yea song itself is pretty one note like heartbeat, but i do dig the vibe and it's definitely more colorful than the last one. even if he's dressing his stuff up in a trendy outfit i'm hopeful it'll still have his heart and maintain his songwriter roots (kinda like andrew mcmahon's latest stuff). but maybe i'm just clinging to the past since i loved his old stuff so much

 

I'm surprised people love City so much, I thought losing the hip-hop influence/spoken word parts was a mistake because that's why NLTL is one of my favorite albums. I have felt that he has since slowly gone back in the direction I wanted him to, with Just Kids being the closest yet.

 

definitely love the spoken word aspect on nothing left to lose, and i feel like if just kids was all songs like "one black sheep" or "los angeles" or "heartbreak dreamer" i would have loved it. it's just that a good chunk of that record is (to my ears) generic pop songs.

i remember being initially bummed out that city didn't have the rap aspect. but once i got over it (happened quickly) i fell head over heels. record sounds like it fell from heaven

 

Yeah, I was bummed about City not having that too, at first, but I think it's such a classic-sounding singer/songwriter record that I completely love it for what it is now. Most of his best melodies are on that record, imo.

Just Kids definitely moved back in the hip-hop influenced direction. But yeah, it seems to me that there are at least four or five filler tracks on there. Looking at the tracklist, I can't even remember how "Ghost," "Miss You," or "The Conversation" sound.

 

Going to have to revisit that album, I think. It does have good songs and strong melodies.

 

Man I always love hearing new Mat Kearney. This sounds like it could have come straight from "Just Kids," which I enjoyed but nothing tops "Nothing Left To Lose"

 

Always excited for new music from him.