Timeless

After a breakout fourth album in “Post-War” and a successful collaboration album with actress Zooey Deschanel as She & Him, singer/songwriter Matt Ward (aka M. Ward), a Portland, Ore., native, finds himself treading new territory of recognition.

With his fifth album, “Hold Time,” M. Ward delivers yet another great alt-country folk record with help from other great musicians.

“Hold Time,” like much of his previous work, sounds like it could have been released in any of the last six decades.

Steeped both lyrically and sonically in American music tradition and produced with a shimmering production style like that of Brian Wilson, “Hold Time” sounds both timeless and nostalgic.

The song “To Save Me” sounds like the exhilarating sequel to the “Post-War” hit “To Go Home” and includes some support from Grandaddy’s Jason Lytle and a wall of sound with guitars, keyboards and percussion. Zooey Deschanel also lends her vocals to the rocking “Never Had Nobody Like You,” as well as a wonderfully laid-back version of Sonny West’s “Rave On.”

M. Ward provides some beautiful and interesting spiritual imagery in “Fisher of Men” and “Epistemology.”

“Hold Time” does, however, have a few shortcomings. M. Ward’s take on Don Gibson’s “Oh Lonesome Me” finds him awkwardly sharing lines with Lucinda Williams in an imbalanced version of the country standard.

The album also has forgettable moments in “One Hundred Million Years” and “Blake’s View.”

While “Hold Time” isn’t perfect, it is just more proof of why M. Ward is one of the most brilliant and underappreciated American singer/songwriters of our time.