Elegant Peasant is the most recent release from Steve Murphy. I remember listening to his first release Lonesome Scrapbook and appreciating his guitar work and vocals. The same can be said about Elegant Pleasant.
“A Hostile Takeover of Your Heart” is the opener and revolves around acoustic guitar, orchestral strings and vocals. The song had a very familiar singer/songwriter feel. It’s not pop but it’s the same type of dramatic melancholy I have heard at open mics and shows. The song is well performed, well delivered but was almost too on the nose as far the emotion I was feeling. I preferred “Ennui Per Diem” which had a more neutral emotional resonance. The song felt traditional in a number of ways and I thought the vocals sounded especially good on this song. On top of that the song has a hypnotic quality that I enjoyed. “A Sentimental Thicket” is an instrumental song and digs a little bit closer to the emotion of ““A Hostile Takeover of Your Heart.” That being said, it has a brighter quality and I was able to focus in on the unique instrumental aspects. “This Lonesome Town” is a seven-minute song and in my opinion the most original sounding one and the highlight. There is one guitar playing this absorbing picking pattern but then there is this second guitar that creates this ambient buzz which was subtle but gave the song a unique quality. The vocals, lyrics and well everything about this song was in the win column. “Sunrise/Sunset” felt like an interlude or vignette. The last thirty seconds or so is fantastic. “Shattered Frames” is a fifteen-plus-minute song and was a hard turn in a completely different direction. The song utilizes piano and sax and is an avant garde experimental piece that embraces dissonance and the space in between the notes. It’s more free jazz than folk. I have to admit this felt like an odd move. Murphy built a very cohesive foundation with the first five songs. There was a flow to it and this seamless quality is something I appreciate in a release. The emotional resonance, the style and message fit. I don’t know if this was intentional by after fifteen minutes of avant garde instrumental play I was not in the head space the first five song put me in. The last song “Pulse” also builds on “Shattered Frames”. And let me be clear that “Shattered Frames” and “Pulse” were both interesting and well done but just in a very different way than the other songs that came before it. Overall, there is no doubt skill and talent heard on these songs which is the one thing that unites all of them. Recommended
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