Jonah Matranga – So Long (Xtra Mile Recordings)

Jonah Matranga has been about a bit, but has been about a bit behind the scenes. He’s done this, done that, fronted this, written that, but only from the wings, in the margins, at the edges. Fed up of being consigned to the ‘thanks to’ list of history, he has written another entire album of stuff to pour directly into the ears of the public and ‘So Long’ is the first single to be taken from it. Curious that it has taken so long. Ha.

With its truncated lines of verse and insistent strum like the idling of an engine, ‘So Long’ is a song about a short farewell made long, but at just shy of three minutes not that long. Jonah’s voice has a wide-eyed innocent sound coupled with an untutored clarity, emphasised by the ‘natural’ small room effect on the vocals. Behind all this, a slide guitar wails soulfully and a basic rhythm keeps the beat on the drums. Very simple, very clean, like a young James Yorkston or Richard Hawley, but with an element of authentic pop similar to John Denver or Glen Campbell – more so than Richard anyway. If any criticism could be levelled at it, it would be that it is too erudite, too obvious. But, as I said, he’s been doing this for a while; honing down to the bones of a subject must be second nature to him. Short, blunt but pointedly familiar.