East Autumn Grin Matthew Ryan A&M Records, 2000 Buy it online Tracks 1: 3rd of October 2: Heartache Weather 3: I Hear a Symphony 4: Me and My Lover 5: Sunk 6: Sadlylove 7: I Must Love Leaving 8: Ballad of a Limping Man 9: Time and Time Only 10: The World is on Fire 11: Still Part Two 12: Worry Reviewed by David Middleton	If it can be said that someone is too sincere, then this describes Matthew Ryan and his latest album East Autumn Grin. Striving too hard to create anthems for the emotionally bankrupt, Grin is lacking in originality and sounds dated, derivative and out of place with current musical directions. With chords that could have come straight out of the 1983, U2 guitar sounds catalog on the songs "3rd of October" and "Heartache Weather," a piano riff on "Sadly Love" sounding like a Cure throw-away and vocals that if you smashed together equal parts Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen with a smattering of Lou Reed, Bono and Tom Waits, you'd have a pretty good approximation of the effect Ryan is heading toward. The train wreck that is Matthew Ryan's voice chugs along with an annoying wheeze, giving many of his songs an I-forget-the-lyrics-and-have-decided-to-improvise tone. And while he may intone like Dylan, have the gravel edge of Waits and the raw yearning of The Boss -- whom some have likened him to -- he is a pale pretender to these greats. Some people love misery and the enjoyment derived listening to another's pain can be, in itself, sweetly voyeuristic. However, East Autumn Grin is a view through a grubby window to a soul too full of dark feelings of the I-can-barely-articulate-myself kind. Forlorn, morose and mostly painful expressions fill the album. After the first one or two songs you try to be sympathetic. After six or seven you're so seriously bummed that you're looking around your home trying desperately to find something that will painlessly put you out of your misery. By songs 11 and 12, the funk has sunk so low, professional help and a handful of Prozac wouldn't help. Even the song titles "Sunk," "Sadlylove," "I Must Be Leaving," "Ballad of a Limping Man," "The World is on Fire" and "Worry" would depress the most staunchly cheerful among us. Some songs are a bit too pretentious as Ryan tries hard to tie together the cultural melting pot and moral dispossession that he seems to view as today's America. Songs like "The World is on Fire," with its "Dixie" intro and "Me and My Lover," with its "When the Saints Go Marching In" intro just fall flat with jingoistic sentiment. A forgettable album that even after several listens (and the requisite handful of Prozac) failed to leave a positive lasting impression. | December 2000   David Middleton is the art director of Blue Coupe magazine and could use some serious cheering up with a strong cuppa java and a Care Bears movie.	Forlorn, morose and mostly painful expressions fill the album. After the first one or two songs you try to be sympathetic. After six or seven you're so seriously bummed that you're looking around your home trying desperately to find something that will painlessly put you out of your misery.