Back from his acclaimed She & Him collaboration with actress/singer Zooey Deschanel, M. Ward's newest full-length is his most soulful collection of songs to date. Brilliantly composed and sung in his warm, gravelly tenor, these tracks are a loving homage to folk, blues, gospel, and country, with guest appearances from Lucinda Williams and Rachel Blumberg of the Decemberists. Modern music rarely sounds this timeless

I wonder what era Matt Ward would have chosen to be born in if he had the chance to pick. He's always recreated various epochs with his music, and no less so on his sixth solo studio album, Hold Time, his most soulful collection of songs to date. A loving homage to folk, blues, gospel, and country, it's a dustier and generally more forlorn outing compared to last year's She & Him album, Ward's mostly upbeat collaboration with the actress Zooey Deschanel. Deschanel herself shows up here on two of the record's perkier tracks, the feel-good stomper "Never Had Nobody Like You," as well as a great cover of Buddy Holly's "Rave On." Songs like the timeless "For Beginners" are reminiscent of the sublime folk of earlier records like Transfiguration of Vincent and Transistor Radio, while the slow-burning title track floats in a haunting wash of strings, as Ward soulfully reminisces, "I wrote this song just to remember / the endless, endless summer in your laugh." Deschanel isn't the only celebrity help to be found here, he's got Grandaddy's Jason Lytle pounding on the keys, while the album's biggest all star, Lucinda Williams, joins Ward for a six-minute duet of "Oh, Lonesome Me," a hushed, heartbreaking rendition of the Don Gibson/Chet Atkins classic.

Like much of the American music canon with which Ward is inspired by, there's plenty of veiled religious imagery throughout Hold Time. During "Fisher of Men," Ward sings, "He put the thorns on the rose to get you to bleed," and soon after he makes his case for heaven in an ode to William Blake on "Blake's View," with a chorus that goes, "Death is just a door / You'll be reunited on the other side." Optimistically, there aren't many references to hell, but various mythical utopias do appear: the Garden of Eden, Mt. Zion, and Shangri-La. For M. Ward, perfection may still be out of reach, but with Hold Time he is, however, one step closer to transcendence.

- Tanya Leet (February 19, 2009)