Acclaimed Songwriter MATT COSTA Releases New Album 'Yellow Coat'

Dangerbird Records and acclaimed California singer-songwriter Matt Costa are excited to announce the release of his brand new full-length album, Yellow Coat. Produced by Alex Newport, Yellow Coat is a masterpiece of heartbreak, equal parts lost Sixties AM radio hits, folk-pop beauty and dark night of the soul music. Taking inspiration from Van Gogh's Dear Theo along with John Steinbeck's A Life in Letters, and stamped with the honesty and intimacy of something not meant to be heard, the album is the product of Costa penning letters to himself about the end of a relationship that had lasted almost a decade. Stream Yellow Coat below.

To celebrate the release of the album, Costa will be performing a special livestream concert tonight, Friday, September 11, from his home in Laguna Beach, CA. Tickets are bundled with pre-orders of Yellow Coat on Vinyl or CD, and the private link to the stream will be delivered prior to the event which will take place at 9 p.m. EST / 6 p.m. PST. Information on concert ticketing for the stream can be found via Dangerbird HERE.

As his second LP for Dangerbird Records and the follow-up to his well-received concept record Santa Rosa Fangs - an album that revealed similar storytelling qualities present in the work of other like-minded American songwriters such as Kurt Vile and Damien Jurado - Yellow Coat channels Costa's raw emotion into a 12-track collection of hooky love songs, most of them awash in strings, Mellotron, harmonies and groove.

At the time that Costa started writing, he had stripped things down considerably, not only emotionally but in terms of his surroundings. He had moved into a Laguna Beach studio apartment with just the bare minimum of furniture and instruments. Instead of a bedside table, a Wurlitzer Sideman drum machine stands.

After connecting with notable producer Alex Newport (Death Cab for Cutie, At the Drive-In), the songs of Yellow Coat took shape with Costa enlisting the help of touring musicians and friends from afar. From the insinuating acoustic riffs and lo-fi beats of lead single "Avenal" to the snappy fatalism of "Slow," the album is brimming with bittersweet narratives of love's power to both soothe and devastate.

Life does go on, however. The album ends with the last song Costa wrote for it, "So I Say Goodbye," which provides a sense of closure, its piano-driven tunefulness feeling both uplifting and melancholic. And while Yellow Coat may have started as an album about heartbreak, its sense of sadness, continued hope and perseverance also feels completely universal right now.

Listen to a song from "Yellow Coat" here:

To post a comment, you must register and login.