Matt Elliott Emerges With Haunting New Single "January's Song" Out Today
ENGLISH GUITARIST & VOCALIST
MATT ELLIOTT
RELEASES HAUNTING NEW SINGLE
“JANUARY’S SONG”
OUT TODAY
NEW ALBUM
THE END OF DAYS
DUE FRIDAY, MARCH 31
Above: “January’s Song” Single Artwork
NASHVILLE, TN (January 26, 2023) — As humanity seems intent to spiral toward its own demise, France-based English guitarist and vocalist — Matt Elliott — chronicles the feeling of impending doom with six more elegies lamenting humanity and its apparent chosen direction on his forthcoming album, The End of Days. The lead single, “January’s Song” (due out Thursday, January 26), reminds us how much Matt Elliott builds each of his records as a sequence of musical movements.
Elliott sings of the infinitely small space, the limbo between intense joy and absolute sorrow, the border between the unspeakable and the shared, bringing on a feeling of nervousness and urgency that runs through each composition. Out via independent label, Ici D’ailleurs, The End of Days is set for release on Friday, March 31, and is a continuum of his previous album, Farewell to All We Know (2020).
Above: ‘The End Of Days’ Album Artwork
Never morose or miserable, rather the resigned melancholy that Elliott is so well known for, since his acclaimed Drinking Songs of almost 20 years ago, the resigned melancholy that he now wears like an old familiar coat.
With The End of Days, Elliott notices the flowers left at a roadside tragedy and explains the sadness and sorrow they imply with a few, but well-chosen words. Singing of opportunities missed in the folly of youth when so many roads were open, reminds us that as January nights are getting shorter, it still won't be warm for many weeks to come. The now familiar voice and guitar are there, the booming bass of his voice resonating, louder, clearer, and closer than ever. The guitar with tinges of his many influences from music of old, from Lisbon to Moscow, Athens to Istanbul and beyond; music that has always existed, that has poured, perhaps from the very soul of the land throughout human history.
Likewise, co-producer David Chalmin is at the helm, navigating the ship, adding his beautiful pianos that dance around the guitar so eloquently, invoking ice skaters or dancers flitting and flying, waltzing like birds at dusk. The pair, plotting the course, like ancient mariners for whom this life is just one of many previous lives lived, wordlessly in each other's company. Saxophones breath woefully in chorus, adding a whole new palette of color, reminiscent of a distant funeral march in Southern Italy slowly making its way to the final resting place of a treasured fallen friend. Underpinning it all is Jeff Hallam’s double bass, marking the pace but also weaving, soaring even, at moments bringing in a soothing and beautiful light from a totally unexpected source. There are moments of light and tenderness, even tiny sparkles of hope.
The End of Days is the next step on Elliott’s musical journey spanning more than 25 years, 18 of those years partnering with one of France’s most prodigious and prestigious independent labels: Ici ’ailleurs. A journey that embarked with Drinking Songs, an album that resonates today, perhaps more than ever. A partnership that continues on, and no doubt will, until the actual end of our days.
Above: Matt Elliott; credit: Léa Jiqqir