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February music reviews

Checking out the hottest sounds in music this month.

By Larissa Primeau

Matt Costa Unfamiliar Faces, Universal Music

This month's reviews have thus far been luke warm which is why it's a relief to introduce you to Matt Costa. Well, you may already know him, he's not brand new. In fact Unfamiliar Faces is his second full length album since 2005. Here's the condensed version of his story. He grew up in Southern California, became a pro-skateboarder injured himself and dedicated his time to music. Through a series of chance encounters, luck and a lot of talent, Costa ends up signed to Jack Johnson's label Brushfire Fairytale, opens for him and is now being distributed by Universal.

You can see why Jack Johnson snapped him up, they share a similar sound but Costa differs from Johnson in the way that he seems more experimental and willing to take risks outside of the "mellow-surf" sound. He goes from catchy pop to acoustic to folk to rock.

The first single off the album is "Mr. Pitiful" and if this doesn't get you right off the bat, than you should go back and put in the new Sheryl Crow CD. "Cigarette Eyes," "Lilac" and "Unfamiliar Faces" are all great examples of how Matt Costa can write, play and perform. If you're interested, he's currently on tour in Canada.

If I was a doctor and you were a patient with the winter blahs, I would recommend a healthy dose of Matt Costa and maybe a few margaritas. That usually works for me.


This month I would like to introduce a new feature called "Can't Wait." These are independent artists, mostly Canadian, but mainly just great artists that offer a chance to get to know great music before anyone else.

This month check out Canadian musician Shad. Originally from London Ontario, Shad has been entertaining the Canadian masses for a couple of years now and will certainly impress you with his thought provoking intelligent hip hop.

Let me know what you think! E-mail me at larissa@ellecanada.com


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1. Sheryl Crow and Jack Johnson
2. Matt Costa

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