The music of Matthew Hegarty is something of a palimpsest: at its surface, its energetically urban, yet rustic layers of the British countryside and rolling fields of folk idioms radiate gloomily through this cosmopolitan sheen. In short, his lyrics are “folk” but the music around it is of the electronic alt-pop variety. After the rapid-fire release of two acoustically-themed EPs in 2010—To the North and Kingdom of Your Own—Hegarty took four years to return with his first full-length album, Other Rivers. The album landed with an irresistible thud against willing eardrums on both sides of the Atlantic. For fans who had slowly gathered around the previous EPs, eager to hear more of the high-and-lonesome delivery that carried Hegarty’s voice gently alongside his solo guitar, Other Rivers felt like stadium lights descending on a garage act. For those discovering Mathew and the Atlas (MATA) through Other Rivers, it stood out against the crowded backdrop of the alt-folk milieu of the early 2010s: not quite the cabin fever of Bon Iver and not exactly the synth-pop drum-machinery of alt-J. Something was happening with this album, with MATA, that felt both singular and webbed into the broader brocade of the U.K.’s indie scene. 

In the ten years since Other Rivers, Hegarty has explored more complex terrains with 2016’s Temple, 2019’s Morning Dancer, and 2023’s This Place We Live—each outlet wading further into the autumnal hues prescribed by his first outing. Perhaps it’s the creative energy supercoiled by the pandemic that’s still being unwound as Hegarty opted for a quick follow-up to This Place with the late-spring release of Many Times. Long-time listeners to MATA might find themselves in the same boat as they were in 2014, unexpectedly caught off-guard by a decidedly different direction from the atmosphere of previous releases. Many Times seemingly picks up from where To the North left off, with an acoustic guitar in hand and a long sojourn through the woods afoot. As if to accentuate the contrast between this album and the four preceding it, Hegarty reached back across the decade for a vinyl re-release of Other Rivers in tandem with Many Times.  

This return to roots is apparent across this album, from its sound to production and promotional ethos. The album’s sound seems to ring with an invitation: come with me—but not too close—to rediscover ruined cottages of the north, or just to walk for the sake of walking. The roots in question, however, aren’t exactly as rustic as those first EPs make out. Though Hegarty hails from the sleepy grassy knolls of Aldershot, Hampshire, a district in the southwest shoulder of England, MATA gained traction through the usual route of London’s pubs and art clubs. To achieve the soundscape of early MATA, though this time with a brighter spotlight on the unique timbre of Hegarty’s strained tenor, he teamed up with producer Kev Jones who was at the mixing board for Other Rivers and To the North. What they aimed to return to—through the analog route of recording to tape—is that thin place that has birthed so many indie projects of this sort but, of course, this destination is a phantom flame that can’t be captured twice. Where they landed instead is on a deck of songs that have a vegetable feel to them, still very raw, like demos for a fuller album to come.

But sifting through the promotional platter on which Many Times is being delivered, it’s apparent that this album isn’t intended as a setup for something to come. Its pared-back aesthetic is intentional and Hegarty is often pictured walking along slim trails cutting through the forestry of his native backwoods. It’s a view of a man looking without searching, and it brings to mind words by Wordsworth who, “stepping westward” through similar terrain a century and a half ago, rattled with the wonder “of traveling through the world that lay before me in my endless way.”