The Useless Critic 2.0

I have been on this major Britpop kick lately. And I don't mean Blur or Oasis or Pulp, I mean the early oughts Britpop I grew up with. Like, the next wave that probably wasn't quite as good (I'm very biased here, so trying to be objective.) Elbow, Doves, Travis, Embrace, Starsailor - I've been exploring bands I long shelved away with great delight.  One beloved musician of my youth who I've *truly* begun listening to for the first time in almost two decades is the late, lovely, seriously underrated Matthew Jay. Matthew's one-and-only album came out in 2001, the classic "Draw." This album held the promise of great things, but great things were cut tragically short when Jay fell out of a window to his death in fall of 2003 (actually around the same time Elliott Smith died). Before then, Jay had enjoyed some very (very) slow critical momentum, propelled by the likes of touring with Dido and Stereophonics.  I was introduced to Jay my freshman ...

I say "recently" because there are a ton of dead people throughout time , and I doubt I will be writing about some singing bard from the Middle Ages. I was supposed to do this before Halloween. Sorry! Let's start with Amy Winehouse and her melancholic break-up anthem, "Back to Black." What makes his gut-wrenching is the decision to film it at a funeral. So watching it now when Amy has been dead for two years is unsettling, to say the least. Classic tale of substance abuse destroying a person full of potential.  Wilco's Jay Bennett- It's easy to gloss over Jay's death now, but Wilco is a great American rock band and Jay deserves to be remembered. Ah, man. Learning of Adam from the Beastie Boys' death was quite a shock. Hopefully, he's kicking it in the afterlife. There are a myriad of dead musicians, you know. So I'm trying to stay away from people like John Lennon and Kurt Cobain. Albeit, they are legends, it's ...

Matthew Jay was SO talented, and really like- gone way too soon. incredibly talented guy. incredibly, incredibly talented. and missed. if you enjoy Britpop at all, check him out. he played with Starsailor (remember them!) before his untimely death. for more info: http://www.matthewjay.com/