Matt Kivel - Escape from L.A.

Matt Kivel - Escape from L.A.Matt Kivel gets specific on Escape from L.A., his latest LP, which was released earlier this year on Scissor Tail Editions. He sings about watching his dad act in “The Natural”; he sings about his twin brother; he sings about being in a 2000s band that could’ve been as big as Vampire Weekend. But it’s to his credit as a songwriter that the album’s 11 tracks never feel overly-diaristic or indulgent. Like a great memoirist, Kivel manages to take wholly autobiographical details and make something interesting and relatable out of them. The music helps, too, whether it’s winsome, pedal-steel-kissed folk, rowdy garage rock or sweeping orchestral pop that calls to mind Dennis Wilson’s Pacific Ocean Blue. Tying it all together is Kivel’s tremulous voice, narrating these songs with a quiet melancholy, finding meaning in his memories.