Justin Moran is an artist from California who recently released BLURRY. The EP was recorded in one take and revolves around guitar and vocals. According to his Bandcamp page BLURRY describes the loss and gradual reclamation of self that occurs following a tragic life event. That description resonated with me since I have practiced meditation for years. One of the main ideas or even goals of certain disciplines of mediation is to lose the sense of self, not get it back.
The songs all seem to come from the same foundation of melancholy. Moran has a good voice and often sounds like the archetype of the tortured singer/songwriter whispering truths to the listeners. The songs are covered in a lot of reverb. As an engineer myself I’m not exactly sure why there was so much reverb. You usually want a sense of intimacy with these types of songs but the hall reverb made it hard to pay attention to details and nuances of both the guitar and the vocals. One thing I will point out is that if you are going to coat an instrument in a lot of reverb it is usually advantageous to lay off reverb on other elements because a lot frequencies build up and compete for space. The EP starts with “Blurry” where the guitar is strummed throughout There are multiple degrees of intensity and Moran does a great job controlling the dynamics with his playing style and vocals. By around the two-minute mark Moran is going all out. “Bloom” starts off very subtle and subdued. It sounds really good. The song builds quickly with more traditional strumming and grows more intense as it grows. “Black Tattoo” follows a similar formula with some subdued picking and more intense strumming. Even after a couple of listens to these songs they felt really similar to me. That's a bad thing because it makes the experience feel cohesive but I felt like I wanted something to define the individual songs more. I’m not sure what happened to the recording quality on “Battle Cry.” The better quality returns on “Where Will I Be” which is the arguable highlight. That being said the emotional foundation felt very aligned with the previous songs. I would like to hear Moran’s abilities that weren’t in one take. At some point working in a studio with a producer, engineers and even other musicians may be advantageous to his music. Moran is a solid songwriter who has a notable singing voice. I look forward to hearing more from the young talent.
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