About this item

Moving, redemptive and powerfully soulful, ‘Big Inner’ is a timeless record told in seven songs that mingle memory with the rawness of any given human moment.

The references - from the lyrics that echo the common conditions of love, death, seeking, and finding, to open tributes to artists like Washington Phillips, Allen Toussaint, Jorge Ben, Jimmy Cliff, and Randy Newman - are their own scavenger hunt through music history and through Matthew E. White’s place in it.

“Country-soul apostle Matthew E. White offers spiritual succour” - Q

“Bottomless columns of ethereal soul… magical” - Pitchfork

“Resplendently somnolent funk” - Rolling Stone

“A dramatic pop-gospel record that hits extremes of the mood spectrum: very easygoing and very obsessive” - NY Times

STAFF COMMENTS

Andy says: There is nothing like this record around at the moment: ‘70s, Southern, blue-eyed soul; languid, mellow, groovy and heady. Matthew is a big, funky, bearded dude from Virginia, who has taken years to set up his Spacebomb label and gather cool kindred spirits, a house band of sorts, who add lush orchestration, parping horns, and loose, shuffling drums to these subtly uplifting tunes. His voice is a murmur, at times a whisper, but it fits perfectly with the vintage instruments and production; elegant, slowly unfurling songs, bubbling bass-lines, choirs and cosmic vibes. Think Spiritualized, Lambchop, or The Beta Band, then lose yourself in “Big Love”s heavy, pulsing swamp, whilst the words "I am a barracuda, I am a hurricane. Live free!" float up and you just know what he means. And that he means it! This guy is the real deal. Hearing is believing.

TRACK LISTING

1. One Of These Days
2. Big Love
3. Will You Love Me
4. Gone Away
5. Steady Pace
6. Hot Toddies
7. Brazos