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Matt Gouette / Press

“Gouette wants to make it in the music industry, but he’s one of the few who could make it on sheer talent alone — think Todd Rundgren, Nick Lowe, David Bowie. Gouette, 26, of New London, is a maverick, a singular figure who writes, records and produces his music; like the men above and the Stevie Wonders and Paul McCartneys of the world, he’s a one-man band. ”

“Gouette's recently released a CD via the Cosmodemomic Telegraph imprint, Living with the Ghost. The disc could all go by in a flash, with its effortless hooks and entirely accessible melodicism, but it shouldn't—Gouette is a gifted craftsman, and his entirely self-recorded (even with its frequent full-band instrumentation) CD rises and falls with the expert dynamism of someone who knows how to craft both a song and a song arc. Gouette can be as straightforward as the best of 'em, but in his quirks he really shines—the off-kilter song structures and surprising builds create tension and display great imagination and confidence, the many moments of strange beauty where he goes for the haunting, weird pop-gut of it all, the recognizable yet new sensibility that lifts him above the sum of his classic pop influences”

Brian Larue - New Haven Advocate

“The dreamy cover art and an opening instrumental prelude go a long way toward setting listeners up for fantasy — suspending their disbelief and opening their ears to accept and get sucked into Matt Gouette’s personal, melodic universe. “What Do You Think” is a trashed-out garage rock tune, with a little Replacements and a little Sonic Youth shining through the seams. “I Want to Thank You” is a pop anthem you’d expect to run across on an old Matthew Sweet or Teenage Fanclub record. From there, the album gets softer and more melancholy for a while and the range of moods only continues to expand as you work into the deeper cuts. “Opinion” gets all electronic on our asses, in the spirit of New Order or Depeche Mode, with a catchy chorus that I only wish was the kind of stuff they still played in dance clubs across the country. File this in the records-I will-continue-to-listen-to-once-I’m-done-reviewing-them category.”

Mike Sembos - New Haven Advocate

“Gouette's 'Picked Up' is an introspective yet observational ballad, hauntingly beautiful in its simplicity of form and power. Gouette's voice hovers ethereally above the music, meandering from thought to thought in a soliloquy which encompasses growth, death, birth, life, love and other everyday symptoms of our humanity. Gouette's closing line, 'this is what I've noticed while waiting to be noticed/this is what I've picked up while waiting to be picked up' would surely win the best ending award. ”

Derek Olsen - The Scope