Remember what it was like to be thirteen years old? Sweaty palms. Awkward haircut. Braces with bright rubber bands. A huge crush on that cute guy or girl. Co-ed parties. Spin the bottle. Seven minutes in heaven. The closed, cramped closet. Tension. Anticipation. Feeling so much older and cooler as you locked lips with another awkward, sweaty teenager trying to prove himself too.
Now extract from that the sweatiness, the awkwardness, and the teenaged-ness. Take out the nervous need to prove oneself. Turn back on the light, shake out the old coats, and sort through the old boxes. Oh, and add one minute.
Now you’ve got Matthew Loiacono’s Penny Riddle EP. Eight solid minutes of...well, maybe not heaven. But eight solid minutes of satisfaction. There, that’s a better word for it.
Loiacono’s song snippets hum with tension and anticipation, giving us just a taste of what he’s capable of. He offers teasing hints of lovely tunes and engaging lyrics. And while overall enjoyable, to quote the first track, “It wasn’t especially moving.” Though not profound, Penny Riddle does feel “grown up.” Contemplative. Not in any rush to prove something. This is the (very, very short) soundtrack to cleaning out, packing up, and moving on.
The whole EP blends together, and those eight minutes fly by sooner than you’d think. Opening track, “Offering” is sixty seconds of fluttering honesty and sparse strums. “Penny Rags” picks up the pace in a thrumming, driving mash of pulsing strings. The track has a full-on bluegrass vibe akin to the likes of Nickel Creek in a fine display of Loiacono’s musicianship. “Are You Hearing What I’m Saying?” introduces a higher, trembling strumming and an electronic melody that, though lovely in its own right, seems bland after the lively banjos. But the bare feeling of that third track leads straight into the simplicity of “I Would Keep You.” Matt’s mumbling, lazy voice sounds odd next to the choral hums and the tapping beats, and while this track falls a bit flat under the pressure of a minute, I get the feeling it could develop into something soft and strange, full and intimate.
“Caramel Hands” returns to a downtempo kind of folk, with picking and harmonies a bit reminiscent of Sam Beam, but with a tone more on the side of Ben Gibbard. “Subtly Torn” drops right in with a pulsing bass that seeps into the staccato, bouncing melody in a style quite different from the rest of the EP. “Beat For Baby” combines the sputtering percussion and bending twang we’ve heard in tracks up to this point. The strums rise and fall with comfortable ease atop a nervous snare. “Riddle?” on the other hand, comes off a bit harsher, with harmonies that don’t seem to sit quite right, and chord progressions that fail to arrive at a satisfactory end.
Now, just as those seven minutes in a closet don’t lead to much of a relationship, Penny Riddle may leave you feeling like something is missing. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t worth the experience. These songs are but mere hints of the style and appeal Loiacono can bring to the table. So, you can either be turned off by a disappointingly brief performance, or you can look forward Loiacono’s next full-length release.
Track List
1. Offering (1:00)
2. Penny Rag (1:00)
3. Are You Hearing What I’m Saying? (1:00)
4. I Would Keep You (1:00)
5. Caramel Hands (1:00)
6. Subtly Torn (1:07)
7. Beat for Baby (1:00)
8. Riddle? (1:01)
