Album Review – Jess & Matt: Jess & Matt
2 min read
You might be familiar with Jess and Matt already, having seen their journey through Australian X Factor where they ultimately placed third overall under the guidance of mentor Guy Sebastian. The New South Wales couple impressed judges and audiences alike with their brand of folk-pop duets, and their debut self-titled album continues to explore that musical direction. It’s a splash of perfectly harmonised pop vocals, consisting almost entirely of skilfully reworked cover songs.
Although the duo’s voices are perfectly suited to the emotional style of covers they’ve selected, their own trademark energy shines through each song. Their reworked version of Grease’s You’re The One That I Want, for instance, is reinterpreted as a balladic duet over a sparse backing track, infusing the classic song with a slinky, echoing energy. On the flipside, Blondie’s Heart of Glass is completely stripped back from its thumping disco roots, replaced instead by soulful acoustic guitar and rumbling cymbal crescendoes. The track selection is sure to keep audiences happy: contemporary songs like Sam Smith’s Lay Me Down or A Great Big World’s Say Something sit side-by-side with classics like Dancing In The Dark to cater to pretty much any listening demographic.
Jess and Matt provide the kind of well-trained pop vocals which are the ideal blank canvas to carry all of their chosen tunes, whilst still allowing their unique brand of folk-pop to flow right through the album in the form of nifty finger-picked guitars and the pure tone of their vocal acrobatics.
