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BENEATH THESE FIREWORKS
(Universal)
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San Francisco–based singer-songwriter Matt Nathanson shares a mellow sensitive-guy rasp with Ryan Adams (and the guy from Toad the Wet Sprocket, and the guy from the Gin Blossoms). On his major-label debut, the Lexington native asks an important question: is avoiding the cringeworthy creative lows Adams sometimes hits worth missing the triumphant highs as well? Like Adams, Nathanson writes handsome, hummable tunes about romance and self-doubt steeped in the familiar, comfortable pop rock of Tom Petty and John Hiatt. He opens Beneath These Fireworks with a pretty acoustic lullaby called "Angel," in which he cops to trading "my dreams for this mess of memories," an experience to which any of his mix-tape-making fans can relate. But whereas Adams will go to any length to make a song come alive — providing gory personal details, lapsing into overheated diary drool, drinking himself into a stupor for "research" — Nathanson seems reluctant to give his music a sense of drama that might disrupt the easygoing mood at a backyard barbecue. So "I Saw" and "Curve of the Earth" just roll along amiably on jangling electric guitars and relaxed backbeats, never offending but never raising much of a pulse, either. (Matt Nathanson appears tonight, August 5, at FleetBoston Pavilion, 290 Northern Avenue in Boston; call 617-931-2000.)
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