What's the Matter, M Ross ?

Description

What's the Matter, M Ross, the third album by the idiosyncratic M Ross Perkins, released in May 2025, takes him on an inward journey, exploring the transcendental and the existential. This album shows that the multi-instrumentalist is part of the wave of singer-songwriters who swooned over MJ Lenderman and Waxahatchee, while also being a vehicle for optimism. Composed, performed, and recorded entirely by Perkins, What's the Matter... is at once the most stripped-down and the most expansive of his triptych of albums. The headphone symphonies unfold with deliberate, measured sophistication, while the lyrics explore new territory, more introspective. The touchstones of psychedelic pop are still present: Nilsson's flourishes are still there, as are Gram Parsons and Jonathan Richman. If you want to assign a geographical location to What's the Matter, M Ross, the album is equal parts Laurel Canyon and Big Pink, plus Woodstock the town rather than the festival. M Ross Perkins is a self-contained Teenage Fanclub (the later albums) with the spiritual sense of George Harrison's inner wandering.