onelinedrawing is Jonah Matranga, better known as the lead from bands Far and New End Original. Having sold over 30,000 copies of his 4 DIY solo EP's under that clever moniker, he finally released the debut album Visitor early in 2002 with Jade Tree Records.
Melancholy very well may be the most common word in a music critic's vocabulary when it comes to reviewing acoustic solo albums. I have a hard time thinking of any guy (and it is always a guy) who plays an acoustic guitar and writes his own songs that doesn't sing something horridly disheartening. So here we have Jonah Matranga aka onelinedrawing doing what countless musicians have done over the past several decades: singing songs that have more melodrama than a FOX reality series accompanied by gently strummed acoustic guitar, mild keyboard, and an occasional sample.
What does onelinedrawing offer that hasn't been done before? Not much. But originality is not the aim of Visitor. The goal of this album is to let the listener feel what Jonah is going through. Surely everyone can relate to heartache, love, and pop hooks. So OLD (clever acronym, no?) is about subjecting you to a full range of romance driven emotion, a boy-meets-girl-meets-depression type thing that has been entertaining audiences for ages. And it sounds good, exactly what one would expect from the guy who made accessibly interesting music with New End Original and Far.
It seems as if Jonah does everything right. He whines without being that annoying, he groans without sounding constipated, and he writes about girlfriends without sounding like a crazed stalker or an uncomfortably sensitive pretty boy. His vocals are powerful when the music is soft and reserved when the instrumentation involves a degree of talent other than some strange tuning. He more or less pays homage to Nick Drake, Belle and Sebastian, and Ewan McGregor without realizing it, which is to his benefit. This is the type of stuff that should be kicking Chris Carrabba in the teeth, if it weren't just as guilty of being thin-skinned and wussy. The type of music that makes girls swoon and boys write ambiguously flowery poetry. The type of music that casual listeners fall asleep to and elitist critics mock to mask their own insecurity.
onelinedrawing is, in fact, no different than any of his numerous counterparts. Talented enough to never become famous, interesting enough to be ignored by the mainstream, and desperately wanting to be the next Elliott Smith or Badly Drawn Boy. Maybe in a few years those dreams will come to fruition.
C+
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