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Fri 01 Jan 2007CD of the WeekLUKE TEMPLEHold a Match for a Gasoline WorldFargo*****It is early days yet, but I'll wager that in 12 months this sublime and beautifully crafted work will still be swimming around my head, unleashing its waves of insightful pleasure, sweet pain and achingly gorgeous melodies. Luke Temple is an American west coast singer-songwriter who is at once utterly contemporary and original and yet richly soaked in the heritage of everyone from Elliot Smith to Paul Simon, from sepia-toned folk singers to sophisticated Disney soundtracks. There are 11 tracks plus a hidden mournful instrumental coda and none disappoint, though some are more impressive than others. All songs stand on their own, but there is a sweeping intensity to their collective power. From the percussive, trotting rhythms of the almost naively optimistic Someone, Somewhere, we are taken on an emotional journey that climaxes with the skeletal Only a Ghost and an extraordinary vocal of impassioned vulnerability. The melodies are fragile, emotive, gentle, cascading, his humble, almost ethereal voice living the lyrics of anxious inquiry, weary solitude and warm solace. It's a tough world but, as Temple makes clear with Make Right With You, faith in the personal and spiritual can carry you through (although this contrasts with the haunting fatalism of To All My Good Friends, Goodbye). Temple's musical spirit is rooted in new folk, but he embraces a bewildering range of influences to create a riveting emotional musical experience.