Albums Of The Year: Number 4!

MATTHEW GOOD

'Live At Massey Hall'

Does a live album count as an album of the year? Probably not. Is it a predictable choice for me? Maybe. Am I picking it simply because it's Matthew Good? Absolutely not.

Coming off the success of last year's 'Hospital Music', Matt Good completed two tours of Canada and America. The first was solo acoustic performances, with several songs omitted completely as they didn't work on a single guitar. The second tour was full band (a brand new band, to boot) with all his most famous anthems included and cranked up to 11. As Matt himself put it, "It's time to give some songs their balls back".

And blimey, didn't he just! A 2-disc, 20-song monster of classic and new material, it's a potent reminder of the sheer quality of Matt's back catalogue, plus gives the newer tracks a verve and energy even his stunning last studio album couldn't capture. Hearing the cheerleader chant before 'Giant' kicks in, the opening riff of 'Weapon', or the slow-burning inferno of 'Avalanche' played with breakneck conviction before a screaming audience takes the songs to a new level.

It also cements his status as one of the best songwriters working today; 'Born Losers' is so vibrant live it sounds like a bloody hoedown... then you remember it's about his divorce. And what's staggering is that when he's belting out 'Hello Time Bomb', a song that's 10 years old, his voice and passion singing it live now leaves the old album track in a very, very large wake.

This man is very close to the word 'legend'.