MJK - Wait

Hear The Track Here

There isn't a month goes by without me, or an artist, making a God almighty c***up over a track I did/didn't/couldn't/wouldn't review and last month Matthew Kurz (aka MJK) was the unfortunate victim. Shame that because, as my reviews show, in a very short time indeed MJK has shown that he is a singer (and songwriter) well worth keeping an eye on. Especially if your preference is for extremely polished, professional sounding pop songs that actually work as they are supposed to. Add to that, Matthew's distinctive - and very confident - vocal style and you are listening to a sure fire winner. Anyway, I think the fault was mine so this month we can put that right. Wait was the track I was supposed to review last month but wires got crossed, brains got fried and here we are. Once Matthew had put me straight (and I got out of the hospital), I went to listen to Wait - before I knew he was going to put it up this month - and shock, horror, I can't say I liked it.

At all. Uh ******* oh.

This, after all, is the same guy who has had four Must Haves from me in a row. So where did it all go so wrong? The answer, my friends, is down to one thing and one thing only, I really should never review tracks in a drive by fashion. More so with a musician as refined as MJK because his style isn't in your face. One of the things I picked up on that fatal driveby is that Wait is a ballad - and I think I even heard the original version not this much more developed monster of a track. I am on record as stating that I cannot abide ballads, and indeed that is true. I hold myself in utter contempt for absolutely loving this track but its that kind of track. That's the only defense I can muster on this occasion other than to say that MJK is by far and away one of my favourite singers on Soundclick - or anywhere else for that matter.

While it is, at heart, a ballad, Matthew injects the piece with more than enough emotion and drama to make even a philistine like me pause and take notice. The main thing that comes across in just about ANY MJK track is this musician's amazing ability to not only write a good song, but to perform and record it faultlessly too. As I mentioned in my last review of Without You (March 2010), he is one of the only musicians around who actually uses that annoying Autotune feature without it taking over as the whole point of the song. It's when you come across musicians and singers of this calibre that the abyss between real and online musical world becomes most apparent. In any sane universe, MJK would be as popular as that other MJ and maybe decidedly saner too.

(sigh) MUST HAVE (sigh) ballad.