Way back
in 1982 Europop was storming the charts as FR David sang 'words don't
come easy'.
As chart
fluff goes it wasn't too bad.
Certainly
it's a better song than most of the auto tuned dirges that are common
place now.
So what
has that got to do with the latest ep released by Murnie?
Well
words aren't coming easy to me either as I sit here and try and say
something about it.
Although
I could say that it is certainly better than most of the auto tuned
dirges that are common place now.
See what
I did there?
I linked
all that together and I've still not said anything about Murnie
really.
Is it a
clever thing, or just me flaying about randomly and talking crap.
I'll give
you a clue. It's not the first one.
Right.
Concentrate. (I'm talking to myself now.)
Do you
like the song writing of the Finn brothers in Crowded House? (I'm
talking to you now.)
Maybe a
bit of Squeeze?
Well
there's some of that quality there, but not necessarily the sound.
There's
some jazzy sounding bits on the piano, and on Soft Brown Voice
there's the ghost of David Bowie doing a show tune.
The whole
ep has an easy veneer to it, and it can sound a bit minimalistic, but
there's far more going on than what is on the surface.
The
melodies are tight and everything fits well in the context of the
four songs.
My
problem in describing Murnie isn't rooted in any apathy at what I'm
hearing.
Rather
I'm struggling to express why I like it, and that's a failing on my
part as I can't just say it's good and leave it at that.
So what
else?
The
lyrics. We can talk about them as quite frankly they are a good few
steps ahead of the pack.
Read them
separately from the music and try and imagine what sort of sound
would accompany them and you will be wrong.
Listen to
the music without the lyrics and try and imagine what words would be
layered over what you can hear and I suspect you would be equally as
wrong and maybe that's where my problem, and the magic, lies.
There's
two conflicting things going on in harmony.
It's a
bit mind boggling how that can work, but it does.
It's a
damn lovely wee ep and you should buy it.
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