Haunt – Haunt
Unsigned (4/3/2007)
faux pas productions
Indie rock/Americana
http://www.myspace.com/hauntmusic
Haunt is the debut album by the band of the same name; the latest project from Ware River Club’s former front man, Matthew Hebert. The Western Massachusetts native has supported such artists as The Jayhawks, Dave Alvin, Marah, Blue Rodeo, EmmyLou Harris, Daniel Johnston and The Allman Brothers, and has made recent appearances in Boston; New York City; Washington, D.C.; Northampton, Mass. and Chapel Hill, N.C..
The 13-track album is mainly reminiscent of The Wallflowers, with some Dave Matthews Band thrown in an alt-country fire. I found myself getting lost and distracted in the album after the first three songs, as the album started trailing off at that point, and would have been more profound and lasting if it had been only six songs. My favorite track was “A Brighter Hole”, with a Bob Dylan/Willie Nelson-type poetic flare that I really enjoyed.
This album took weeks to grow on me; I’ve been listening to it many times and eventually it started becoming fairly good background music. Since it took many listens for me to finally start appreciating it, I can’t give it a excellent rating; however, I also can’t give it a poor rating because I could keep the album on repeat for the next few weeks without it starting to grate at me. It doesn’t do anything to really jump out at the listener, or to make one take notice. I think the strengths of Hebert are his melodies and his songwriting, but he tried to put so much on this album that it became one big long mind-numbing set. All things considered, though, I certainly would give Haunt another try in the future should they release a second release.
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