Post-War was described by Vanity Fair in its August 2006 issue as thematic on the question "How will America heal once this craziness in Iraq is over?" Ward said in that article that he looked to the post-war music of the late 1940s and 1950s.
#Transistor radio m.ward full#
Post-War was Ward's first album with a full backing band, with players including Howe Gelb, Jim James, and Neko Case. In August 2006, Ward released Post-War on Merge Records. Transistor Radio received a score of 78 out of 100 on Metacritic, indicating "generally favorable reviews." Josh Terry of Consequence of Sound, writing of Transistor Radio in 2014, described the album as "one of the finer examples of ramshackle and intimate mid-aughts folk." A writer for Alternative Press, however, said that "Most of Ward's quiet, contemporary folk songs are mere sketches, mediocre if not unmemorable." Transistor Radio was reissued by Merge in December 2014 with four previously unreleased tracks. The album consists of Ward's own compositions as well as three covers, The Beach Boys' " You Still Believe in Me", Carmen Lombardo's pop standard " Sweethearts on Parade", and Bach's " Well-Tempered Clavier". Transistor Radio, Ward's fourth album, was released on Merge in 2005, and he served as the opening act for The White Stripes that fall.
Fahey's pre-war style of folk music and production techniques, using basic equipment and simple arrangements, greatly influenced Ward's own sound and recording practices. The title alludes to the 1965 album The Transfiguration of Blind Joe Death by John Fahey, and refers to the life and death of Vincent O'Brien, a close friend to Ward. Transfiguration of Vincent received a weighted average score of 82 out of 100 by review aggregator website Metacritic, based on 13 critical reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". Ward released his third album, Transfiguration of Vincent, on Merge Records in 2003 to critical success. Transfiguration of Vincent and Transistor Radio (2003–05) Sparklehorse had released It's a Wonderful Life to critical acclaim earlier in the year.Ī collection of live recordings, Live Music & The Voice of Strangers, was a self-released disc that was sold at his shows in 2001.
In a retrospective review, Ryan Kearney of Pitchfork compared the album to a contemporary band, Sparklehorse, saying that "both Linkous and Ward are country-and folk-influenced artists who scratch unavoidable, but nominally disruptive marks on the traditional blueprint". Ward's second album, End of Amnesia, was put out by Future Farmer Records and Loose Music (Europe) in 2001. recorded on a shoestring and not necessarily worse for it", Duet for Guitars #2 soon went out of print for a second time, before being reissued by Merge in 2007. Described by Joshua Klein of Pitchfork as "ragged and lo-fi. Ward's solo debut, Duet for Guitars #2, was released by Co-Dependent Records in 1999, then reissued by Howe Gelb's Ow Om record label in 2000. Solo recordings Duets for Guitars #2 and End of Amnesia (1999–2001) Ward continues to record only analog, and starts all of his songs as demos on the same recorder he has had since his teens. Growing up, Ward taught himself songs by the Beatles on his brother's guitar, and began recording demos on a four-track analog tape recorder when he was about fifteen. Ward was raised in Glendale, California, and moved to Portland, Oregon, after college. In addition to his solo work, he is a member of indie pop duo She & Him and folk-rock supergroup Monsters of Folk, and also participates in recording, producing, and playing with multiple other artists. He has released 10 studio albums since 1999, primarily through the independent label Merge Records. Ward's solo work is a mixture of folk and blues-inspired Americana analog recordings. Ward, is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist from Portland, Oregon. Matthew Stephen Ward (born October 4, 1973), known professionally as M.
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