The Morning After: M. Ward's Hold Time

Hold Time, to be released February 17 on Merge

Report Card: A-

M. Ward has put himself through quite a bit these past few years, what with going from being an under-the-radar fave of way-back nostalgics (sparse as those fans may have been), to the increasingly broad appeal of the excellently dust-covered Post War, to touring with everyone’s mom’s favorite artist, Norah Jones (a move that perhaps undeservedly alienated some of his long-time appreciators), to his teaming up with concert-shy actress Zooey Deschanel for the well-liked but unspectacular She & Him project. And while that trajectory culminated in a back seat position behind Deschanel’s recognizable face for much of the past year, Hold Time sees Ward again taking the front of the stage, and one listen to the album demonstrates that while all the hullabaloo may have changed others’ impression of him, his approach remains comfortably much the same. And in terms of his career, that means Hold Time is a pretty solid listen.

Hold Time leans in large part toward the rock side of Ward’s aesthetic, and he shows increasing willingness here to back up his immediately-identifiable voice with more of itself, as well as corral big name supporters to build up his tracks, not to mention his press releases—Zooey herself makes a not-so-unexpected appearance here (on the excellent “Never Had Nobody Like You”), as does the nearly universally praised Lucinda Williams and the Decemberists’ Rachel Blumberg. The collaborations, as well as what can be assumed to be Ward’s rediscovered sense of artistic liberty, have resulted in an energetic thirteen track adventure reestablishing Ward’s dynamic and singular musical vision—if there’s a complaint to make here, it’s that the album sounds too much like M. Ward. True, the breakthroughs are few, and while that may be a bit worrisome to those worn out on Ward’s gravelly and lo-fi-in-disguise approach, one only has to listen a couple times to the molasses slowness of the title track to realize that while Ward’s stayed true to his yesteryear vision, that doesn’t mean the man can’t come up with a bunch of well-produced throwbacks. Because when it comes to that, there are few, if any, who are better.