Check Out This Review of my Hit Single!!!! 14

This is a review of my song, Movie Song, by Chuck Klosterman: First, if you haven’t seen the video, here is a new link to it:

Here’s the review, copy and pasted:

 
Matt Ralston

Movie Song, Independent.

★★★★

“Matt Ralston is an artist of inhibited verisimilitude – at once confined to the genre of hip-hop, yet grappling with its conventions like a shadow-boxer caught between the glory days of boxing, and the modern era of mixed martial arts, one foot in the ring and one in the dojo, Ralston toes the line like Brent Barry’s free-throw-line dunk, willing to spar with anyone, save the fat guy in the corner who bought a Groupon to try it as a hobby. 

His single “Movie Song” captures this dichotomy of technological urban decay (Ralston still owns an iPhone 4s – the 8 gig) and old-school tits to the floor St. Louis Style barbeque music better than any artist in recent memory. 

On the surface the song is a simple morality tale of karma brought to life with the childlike zeal of a young Peruvian boy stealing packets of mustard from a buffet line, yet underneath Ralston hints at a certain skynech-dior which permeates the sampled beat, making Bob Dylan’s original more of a fish-out-of-water saga than narrative – think Oren Hatch running out of shampoo, or if Prince had died of rubella prior to releasing his early work, say around the age of 2. 

“Movie Song” references many 90’s comedies – an era dominated by Jim Carrey, Ben Stiller, both of which have arms, legs, and a head. From Ace Ventura: Pet Detective to Happy Gilmore, Ralston is able to suss out the themes of each film, preying on his listeners nostalgia for a bygone era of pagers, Pop Rocks, various arguments as to whether Pluto met the definition of an actual planet, and cars. Specifically, 90’s cars. 

In this transformation of genre expectation through the use of meta-sampling and something Ralston refers to as “Killing honeybees with expensive wine”, the song is able to work on several levels: Level 1, Level 2, and sometimes Level 3, which is the final level in this hypothetical video game, which I am going to refer to from here on out as “Jewel Thief Burrito Hunt” as a placeholder until Sony approves the final programming for the prototype which should be in stores soon, according to them, but you can’t really trust people anymore, in fact, I saw a lady at Trader Joe’s recently take 17 items into the “Express Lane” that is labeled “15 Items or Less.” 

“Movie Song” is sure to be a hit among hip-hop fans of many ilk, as well as cinephiles and people who work in the restaurant and personal hygiene industries. 

**** Needless to say I am flattered that an actual music writer took the time to review the song. I will let you all know when additional singles are released.