Matisyahu-Shattered EP

I've been pretty curious to see what Matisyahu's new stuff was going to be like. I am a firm supporter of Live at Stubbs, but felt like Youth was largely a mistake and evidence of the dictatorial influence of producers. With those two feeling tugging at my expectations, I didn't set my sights incredibly high for this release. I like the songs on this EP. I can admire the fact that Matisyahu's style is evolving and is not stuck in a rut of repetition. While I normally don't approve of too much technological wizardry, Matisyahu picked up a keyboardist and is successfully incorporating more electronic sounds in and out of the studio. That being said, I still think that Matisyahu's place is on stage. Energy, spontaneity(there are about 95 live versions of any given song), and a positive message make him what his is, and only one of those things is carried over to the studio. Live versions of the songs from this EP were available on his website and are better in my opinion.

In short, I'm not upset about Shattered.

The upcoming full-length Escape should be a decent album and I'm glad that it wasn't forced to release during the summer as planned. I would expect more Shattered-esque songs, some of which are already available live, and a studio track Master of the Field is available on his website. Matisyahu has also been kind enough to put all of his albums on his website for free listening enjoyment, including Shattered. Take a look see.