‘Henry St.’ - The Tallest Man on Earth Album Review

By: Maddie Turner

Kristian Mattson, known as “The Tallest Man on Earth,” released his sixth studio album Henry St. on April 14 following prior records: Dark Bird is a Home (2015) and There’s no leaving now (2012). Henry St. is notably the first time that Mattson has recorded an album in a band setting. He says that throughout his career he has “mostly been a DIY person fueled by the feeling of not knowing what he was doing, so he’d just do everything himself”. Mattson invited friends to join him on this album, longing for the energy that is only released when creating with others. Sylvan Esso’s own Nick Sanborn produced Henry St. and includes contributions from CJ Camerieri and Rob Moose of Bon Iver on trumpet and strings respectively, French horn, Ryan Gustafson of The Dead Tongues on guitar, lap steel and ukulele, TJ Maiani on drums, Phil Cook on piano and organ, and Adam Schatz on saxophone. With so many collaborators, this album is a masterpiece. 

The record starts out with a track titled “Bless you,” a song that reads almost like a poem, a recollection of memories shared with another person that have since faded away. This song also battles with feelings of acceptance and self sabotage, with lines like: “The only sleep I really cared for was the ‘gently by your side,’” and “I lay next to someone else now quiet in the morning I am my own wrecking ball on the lonesome side of times”. Referring to himself as a “wrecking ball” in a way to describe himself tearing a relationship down, whether he meant to or not. Strong lyricism is something that is present throughout this entire album and “Bless You” is a wonderful opening. The title track “Henry St.” is the sixth song on the album, and my personal favorite. In this song, Mattson speaks about the New York City effect, thinking moving out to a big city is going to solve all of your problems, having dreams light up your eyes and then slowly being pulled away from them. In the opening lyrics “On their drive to New York City for a twinkle in their eye, will I ever be remembered?” and the closing lines “I just don’t know if I can take it anymore” we see the internal struggle of an artist come to life, this is arguably one of the best songs that Mattson has put out yet. 

There is a common theme of internal struggle, mostly with love, on this album. The closing track “Foothills” is a 2 minute and 39 second long ballad about longing for someone to love you as much as you love them, closing the record out with lyrics: “I will be upright and leave wrecks upon my sea / And starve the fire on the foothills of our dreams / And someday I'll be just that singer but singing is alright”. “Foothills” is a magically painful song, and Henry St. is a magically painful album. Mattson is still out here killing the game as “The Tallest Man on Earth” and I urge everyone to checkout Henry St. whenever they can, I have a feeling this is one that I’ll be revisiting quite often.