Matt Marquee

Chicago-based artist Matt Marque has pulled an underground all-star cast for a backing band on his sophomore album Nothing Personal. From Wilco’s Glen Kotche to Califone’s Ben Massarella, the disc is an amalgam of indie famous talent with the exception of the relatively unknown lead man. Sounding musically like a merger between Mellow Gold-era Beck with the morose strums of his later Sea Change, Nothing Personal is an interesting mix of upbeat and downtrodden. Each song follows this preconceived sound the band seem to have set out for since day one. Still, while adhering to this mould, the group manage to keep things varied enough to make the disc compelling all the way though. Each song has strong characteristics of its own while lending to the album’s overall feeling. The result is a complete sounding disc that never lags at any point. Hopefully Nothing Personal will pull Matt Marquee out of the shadows of his backing band.