Martin X. Petz - Broken Man
The best songwriters resist pigeonholing. It might
be easy for the uninformed to give Martin X. Petz’s latest full length album
Broken Man a single listen and slap an ill-fitting label on it as faith-based
or intended for adult oriented radio play. The source and appeal of this nine
song work, however, is much broader. These are songs that attempt to dramatize
Petz’s own interior struggles, but they just as often look outside the confines
of self and connect wonderfully with facets of our lives that, undoubtedly,
resonate with a wide swath of potential listeners. His lyrical content avoids
inaccessible or high-flown moments of pseudo poetry, but make no mistake that
Petz isn’t a superior writer when compared to many of his contemporaries in the
field. There’s great intelligence and literacy driving these songs. He emerges
from this album not just as a gifted songwriter and musician, but as a
storyteller with a voice that’s an ideal vehicle for communicating with his
audience.
The title song incorporates a full band, but their
touch is light. Petz keeps this track clipped and doesn’t waste a word or note,
but the atmosphere of the song keeps the energy level at an engaging medium.
It’s a credit to his songwriting skill that Petz never lets things get too
overwrought, but his plain-spoken depiction of despair will be an affecting
listening experience for many. “Noble Blues” takes on some of the full band
trappings heard on the first song but tempers them somewhat. The result is a
much more intimate approach for the song’s first quarter before Petz opts for
ramping up the musical stakes during the remaining duration. The album’s third
track “Fall” is constructed around a tasteful half shuffle tempo accentuated by
understated drums. His vocal shows all of the care and sensitivity for phrasing
apparent on the album’s first two songs and there’s some tasty lead guitar here
as well.
A classic count-in opens “Heart & Home” which,
as the title implies, celebrates the connections that sustain our lives. The
arrangement is full of the sound musical decisions and compelling playing that
characterizes the album as a whole, but it does more than that. The song has a
great uplifting swing that picks listeners up and keeps them engaged throughout
the song. “Count” reaffirms the virtues that guides much of the album’s
songwriting with a clean, uncluttered track primarily centered around Petz’s
evocatively recorded vocals, his guitar, and light percussion. “They Say
(You’ll Know)” has much of the same breezy confidence heard on the album’s best
songs and a light shuffle pace that keeps things moving without ever forcing
them along. Broken Man’s final song, “Chained”, has much of the same musical
focus characterizing earlier tracks like “Count” and relies on intimacy to make
its case to the listener.
There’s deceptive simplicity here, but Petz is a
songwriter who realizes the virtue of a song having no more than it needs to
get its message/point across to the listener. The nine songs on Broken Man do
not pretend to remake the wheel artistically – instead, Petz is a fine product
of the singer/songwriter school of popular music and excels at giving his
audience entertaining musical material along with substantive words that will
reach and touch many hearts.
9 out of 10 stars
Lydia Hillenburg
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