One Match Left

Uncompromising, enigmatic, and wildly ambitious, Brooks Nielsen (lead singer of Southern California surf-psych icons The Growlers) is proud to announce his first full-length solo album One Match Left: a double-vinyl, twenty-song journey into the heart of darkness, and toward the light that eventually remains. "There's happiness in there," says Nielsen, speaking from his Los Angeles home. "The bands that I like have a sense of humor, like Television Personalities or Jonathan Richman, but there's tragedy too. That's the old theatrical tradition." One Match Left showcases these aspects in epic fashion, with Nielsen playing the role of carnival barker, lullaby crooner, and rock & roll priest, depending on the track. It's actually Nielsen's first time around without his partners from The Growlers; he's now joined by old friends Christopher Darley (guitarist for Father John Misty) and Levi Prairie on songwriting duties. No stranger to the emotional landscapes of modern pop life, producer Michael Andrews expands the songs from the theatrical and into the cinematic. From his Elgin Park Recordings studio in Glendale, Andrews makes chart-topping hits (like the song "Mad World" from his soundtrack to Donnie Darko) and cult favorites (he scored the entirety of Freaks & Geeks and Pete Davidson's King of Staten Island). Assembling a core team of himself on guitar and bass, Robert Walter (Roger Waters, The Greyboy Allstars) on keys, and Joey Waronker (Beck, Atoms For Peace) on drums, Andrews infuses the material with a lush palette, more akin to Harry Nilsson and Serge Gainsbourg than anything we've heard before from Nielsen. Through the prism of time, we'll see One Match Left for the many things that it is: a reflection on the death of a relationship, a public reckoning for a fan-favorite band, a love letter to his wife (and mother of their three young children), a survey of global sound and vision, and a daring step forward for one of contemporary music's most essential voices, Mr. Brooks Nielsen.