The Tallest Man on Earth

The Wild Hunt

(Dead Oceans)

Record Review by Adam McKibbin

Kristian Matsson is The Tallest Man on Earth – and while he is not the tallest man on earth, he nevertheless has one of the most commanding presences around.  Opening for Okkervil River frontman Will Sheff in a Los Angeles cemetery in late 2008, Matsson stilled the chatter and dropped our jaws with his expressive, dexterous fingerpicking and his startling croak. 

The Wild Hunt, his second full-length, keeps his folk phasers set to stun.   We get two of his best songs to date right off the bat – the title track and “Burden of Tomorrow” – both showing Matsson’s increasingly deft hand as a songwriter, as well as his increasing command of his voice as an instrument.  In the sublime, melodic chorus of “Burden of Tomorrow” in particular, he hits new notes of aching melancholy.  And while his impressionistic lyrics can be a tad on the cryptic side sometimes, he lands a number of memorable lines; in the case of “Burden of Tomorrow,” the best one is “Rumor has it that I wasn’t born / I just walked in one frosty morn / Into the vision of some vacant mind.”  In part because of the short run time and in part because of its top-to-bottom consistency, The Wild Hunt is an album bound for repeat listens, and “Burden of Tomorrow” was the first track to embed itself multiple times on my playlist. 

Rawness was a key ingredient in The Wild Hunt’s predecessors (Shallow Graves, along with the eponymous EP), but Matsson moves toward a more sophisticated production here.  With that said, there are still those moments where, thanks to the sandpaper edges of his rasp, it sounds as though the songs are being ripped right out of him.  There are a couple of tracks that don’t grab like the others, but even then it’s hard to qualify them as missteps.  He lands another wicked one-two punch later in the album with the propulsive “King of Spain” (the first track that was sent out into the world) and “Love is All,” one of the loveliest and sparsest on The Wild Hunt – which, all in all, is one of the best albums from the front half of 2010.