Music Review: Matthew French, ‘Circles’
The Minneapolis folk singer-songwriter pours his heart into a new album that’s unafraid of big questions and vulnerability.
Matthew French’s Circles album artwork design by Aaron Stottlemyer.
Minneapolis songwriter Matthew French writes with lyrical honesty and emotional authenticity. His new album, Circles, beautifully tells the truth, right from the start.
I spoke with Matthew in the summer of 2023 as he was beginning to work on what would become Circles. We talked about the challenges and uncertainties involved in the making of a new record. He told me, “It’s all right to not know every detail before going in to record. Some things are discovered in the journey.” What he’s discovered along the path towards his new album is gold.
French doesn’t shy away from difficult questions in this album. Throughout the span of the first 10 tracks, he keeps returning to the big questions that haunt every human in moments of introspection.
The album’s opening track, “Just a Man,” is the opening of the door to a vulnerable interior. It speaks to French’s craftsmanship and his urge to make things better when he sings, “I feel like a stranger in my own life.” As a listener, this is a call to lean closer: The song and its writer are revealing something profoundly personal and important.
In the title track, “Circles,” the questions range from “Can I get it right?” to weightier thoughts of “Am I changing for the better? / Will it be this way forever?” The doubts swirl and build, showing French’s trust in the sophistication of his listener. These questions he poses so intimately within the bars of the song are familiar to every one of us. Aren’t we all searchers?
Just as the questions’ accumulated weight starts to feel heavy in your chest, there’s a guitar break that feels reminiscent of a 1990s Gin Blossoms tune. It empties out the sonic space, then slowly builds back into the catchiest of choruses. The song brings the listener the knowledge that the big questions are part and parcel of an ordinary existence. It’s ok. This is how it goes sometimes.
The track that comes right after “Circles” displays an expert bit of song ordering. Where the title track asks questions that feel fracturing, the chorus in “Together Again” ends with “Put me back together again / together again.” French is a master bridge builder, putting his listener immediately at ease. There’s an elegant twist in the design of this track’s bridge as the lyrics and melody rise to the quintessential question of the record, “Can you put me back together? / Together again.”
Throughout the album, Chris Furst’s electric guitar leads are breathtaking, and they marry exceptionally well with French’s voice. Their precision in tone provides the exact amount of motion and contrast, while expertly supporting French’s silky smooth vocal delivery. Furst (who also mixed and produced the album) brings sparkle and grit to the flowing melody. That dedication to adding just the right sonic sweetness extends to the use of banjo on several tracks.
Matthew French. Photo credit: Tom Smouse.
Some of the first notes and the very last notes of this album are pedal steel, and those sounds guide us through the arc of these songs, courtesy of Travis Toy. The elegant sweep and glide of the pedal steel tones rise and fall and linger. It’s one of those instruments that seems to guide human emotion.
Nowhere is this more apparent than in the track “Anymore.” Toy’s pedal steel work doubles, melodically echoes, weaves in and out of Furst’s guitar work, hovering in the sonic background, grounding the lyric, then sparkling in soaring bell tones. As close as the harmonies on this song stick to the melody of the lead vocals, Toy and Furst’s interplay between electric guitar and pedal steel are every bit as close.
Matthew French is a songwriter’s songwriter. His knowledge of craft is rivaled only by his insight into what makes us human. The standout track for this reviewer was “The Songwriter.” Its country shuffle lulls you, until the chorus where French eloquently writes:
Oh, I’m a songwriter
a poet writing prayers
sending them out to God knows where.
you may never know me
when you hear my melody
I hope it sets your soul free
French nimbly and deftly knits this chorus right into the bridge that lays it all out, all while laying you out with admiration for his skill. He sings, “More than words / I’m giving you my heart.” As he delivers those lines, the lead guitar guides you in a few quick steps to the loveliest of pauses where the world stops and the pedal steel soars. In that hallowed moment, you are standing face to face with the truth.
The second to last track on the album, “Sweet Ohio Soil,” is a wide open returning, a literal and metaphorical grounding. This song feels like the center of the album, the center of the writer. The beautiful and simple guitar lick returns again and again, as sure and steady as “the lifetime of love and family” of which French sings. This song is a warm assurance from a loved one, to a loved one.
whatever life brings you
it will be ok
we’re always just one call away
It’s also a love song to the very beginnings of a songwriter, who offers everything in the lines:
I can’t wait to tell you
what you mean to me
you’re everything
The final track, a cover of John Prine’s “How Lucky,” is a thematic resolve to the album. The song is a counting of blessings, and there’s an openness to asking those difficult questions while also feeling grateful for what’s been given, what has been provided.
On Circles, Matthew French has created beauty that resonates. The writing is masterful. The delivery is honest and true. The offering and the vulnerability here are absolutely stunning. This is an album to step back and behold. Examine it from all sides and give in to the wonder of how it was done. Sink into the ultimate generosity of someone willing to give you his heart, if it would help you out.
Circles Album Credits
Produced, Engineered, & Mixed by Christopher Furst
Mastered by Chris Bethea
Drums: Greg Schutte
Bass Guitar: Nick Salisbury
Electric Guitar & Banjo: Christopher Furst
Pedal Steel Guitar: Travis Toy
Artwork Design: Aaron Stottlemyer
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Doyle Turner. Photo credit: no_aesthetic_stills.
Doyle Turner loves words. Whether it is shaping syllables into songs, poems, early morning journals, handwritten thank yous, lists, or album reviews, he is in a deep and abiding relationship with his college-ruled paper, Uniball Signo 207 .7mm pens, and mostly his keyboard. A good day is spent taking pictures, mailing things, making the words convey the precise meaning, driving, and singing.
