Eternifinity

Album Review

Supernatural Scandinavian being the Mattoid knows how destructive his dark powers have become, so in a rare display of compassion he has chosen to ease the gentle public back into his terrifying and simplistic world with a six-track EP. Eternifinity doesn't stray too far from the infectious Velvet Underground-meets-Martin Denny-swing of his full-length debut, Hello, but there's a newfound sensuality to the whole affair that finds the perpetually hard-partying heathen moved by the invisible bonds of friendship, while still driven mad by the carelessly parted hips of love. Beginning with "Joy," a late-night rumination on both subjects, the Mattoid ponders his good luck with concentrated restraint before unleashing his signature throat-singing, a guttural war cry that conjures up the image of Louis Armstrong and Grover from Sesame Street chasing each other around a turnstile with hammers. "Crazy Muthas" mirrors Hello's sunnier moments, focusing on the Mattoid's enviable — and unbending — positive outlook in the face of emotional and physical strife, growing more and more confident with each repetition of the mantra "I'm a crazy mutha on my way to the sun." "Tinkli Vinkli" and "Little Surfer" are both amiable little rock & roll nuggets in the vein of Ween — without the wink — and the not-so-subtle love song "Blow" ("every time you blow it makes me feel so...yeah") gives every indication that the Mattoid has lost none of his nihilistic verve. Eternifinity closes with a re-recorded — heavier on the "sango" — version of Hello's "Happiness," and its' long refrain of "happy, happy, happy," sung desperately over a minor key finally reveals the Mattoid for what he is: a modern day practitioner of the Portuguese fado in the guise of an Elvis-loving, culturally displaced, goatee-adorned Finn living in the most heartbroken city in the world, Nashville Tennessee.