It’s ridiculous, I know, but even now, 11 albums into his music career, I still can’t shake the image of Matt Berry as Douglas Reynholm, the rather socially unaware, lecherous character who inherits his father’s business in The IT Crowd. I’m sure he’ll be delighted that that’s how I still think of him. Thankfully though, his rather masterful discography is a world away from that, and Heard Noises is up there with the best of his career.
Particularly pleasing is the opening track, ‘Why On Fire‘ which seems to meld a Doors-like melody to an early nineties dance fantasia, which works beautifully, before the jangly, Byrds-like ‘Silver Rings‘ – perhaps with a slight ‘late eighties indie’ twist to it, continues the pleasant aural assault.
Then it goes a little odd. After the brief ‘Interlude‘ comes the interestingly titled ‘Be Alarmed‘, its languorous nature making me feel like I’m in living in some kind of hippy commune where everyone is lying around in a state of inertia at 3am after a drug-addled party. Jim Morrison once again springs to mind.
While it was a fascinating diversion from the commercial levity of the first two tracks, I must admit, it was a relief to get back to the more traditional side of Berry’s work on the charming ‘I Gotta Limit‘, a duet with Kitty Liv (of Kitty, Daisy and Lewis) which begins with a brassy flourish that recalls Curtis Mayfield‘s ‘Move On Up‘ and proceeds to crackle with the same kind of energy as Ike and Tina Turner‘s ‘Nutbush City Limits‘, Liv’s vocal somehow bringing a semblance of a defiant country swagger to the party. It’s undoubtedly a key moment on Heard Noises, and definitely top-tier in the Matt Berry canon.
Equally impressive is the way Berry creates such an effective, moody ambience on ‘Wedding Photo Stranger‘, despite the fact that it appears to consist, vocally, of just two notes. Then ‘Stay On The Ground‘ is just lovely, a bit like The Divine Comedy if they’d existed in 1967, and another absolute winner in ‘Canada Dry‘, which is arguably the most commercial track here and certainly the one that most makes you want to dance.
There are interesting little detours along the way, such as ‘I Entered As I Came‘, which features the US actress Natasha Lyonne, but is more akin to the kind of performance art that Yoko Ono might have come up with, and ‘Sky High‘, which brings the final curtain down, is a trippy, jazz fuelled oddity. Perhaps best of all though is the progressive be-bop of ‘There Are Monsters‘, a song which starts like it’s going to be an out-and-out rocker in the vein of The Who, but instead shoots around like a pinball wizard and ends up sounding like a number from a modern-day musical.
It’s not a perfect record by any means, and if I’m brutally honest, I much prefer the more conventional tunes that are ensconced here, rather than the more complex meanderings, but to be fair, I get my wish for the lion’s share of Heard Noises, and it’s easily the strongest album I’ve heard from 2025 at this early stage of the year, anyway. Long may Matt continue making music if it’s always going to be this enjoyable.
Heard Noises is released on January 24th through Acid Jazz Records.
