The team of Colleen and Steve Murphy (sorry guys and girls, they’re married!) form the core of London, Ontario’s Westminster Park. Their first album was released way back in 2003, and they’ve often been compared to classic alternative or folk pop bands like R.E.M., The Velvet Underground, New Pornographers and Belle & Sebastian. Their newest release is called Songs That Rhyme With Alone, which they call “a nine-song collection with space to pause, reflect, and take the rhetoric, restrictions, and repetitiveness of pandemic-living down a notch.”
Speaking of the pandemic, this album was recorded at the Murphy home during stay-at-home orders in Ontario, in the library-looking room featured on the cover, including actual birds heard right outside the window! For inspiration, the band has been “obsessing” over the English folk group Haron, along with Lee Hazlewood and Nancy Sinatra, and Brazilian guitarists Joao Gilberto and Antonio Carlos Jobim working with Stan Getz. The band explains: “Our strategy was to eschew overly aggressive and in-your-face approaches many artists employ to make their point and imbue this album with elements of our personality, relationship, and up-and-down pandemic experiences. This isolation and emotional rollercoaster influenced songs and sounds on the album. Some lyrics deal specifically with our home life, while other lyrics are looking externally to the world we see outside.” Both of the Murphys sing, with Steve adding guitars, ukulele, piano and percussion. Filip Stasiak adds electric bass, double-bass and cello. Mixing and mastering was by Ben Srokosz of Ooak Productions in Chatham, Ontario. Aside from download, there’s a very limited run of vinyl pressings available, including original artwork. “Words That Rhyme With Alone” starts with the sound of the actual birds through the window of the Murphy’s home studio. Maybe it’s the pandemic at work, but I think this is maybe the third album I’ve reviewed this year with real-life birds chattering behind the music! The song itself has a chord structure very close to Tom Petty’s “Free Falling” at least until the lyrics start. Steve Murphy has a classic folk voice, deep and evocative like Peter or Paul (without Mary) or other singers of that era. The tempo is slow, steady and deeply felt. Murphy overdubs his acoustic guitars with some nice electric melodies, while Filip Stasiak’s bass nicely fills out the bottom. Next up are the “rosy bossa-nova vibrations” of “Don’t Cry My Dear.” This is the song influenced by Brazilian guitarists Joao Gilberto and Antonio Carlos Jobim. The shuffling beat (with appropriate pauses) is just right, the guitars are tangy, and Colleen Murphy’s background vocals smooth as silk. Stasiak moves over to cello for a short but evocative solo. The call and response between Steve’s lyrics and Colleen’s “vocalizing” (singing without words) has a real late ‘60s feel, like a song from an early Woody Allen comedy. “We Are Ugly” slows the tempo way down and becomes very intimate, where you can actually feel the room where the recording took place (especially the piano and cymbals). The song deals with the fact that we all hide our physical (and even moral) imperfections, though we all share them. Steve’s vocals are quietly confessional, while Colleen again impresses me as a singer every bit as good as Stevie Nicks, and I’ll take that to the bank! “Instrumental” is just that, a short interlude of quietly strummed guitars, though one of them seems just a hair sharp. With “A Lack of Understanding” we’re finally gifted with a full vocal performance by Colleen, with Steve adding his voice here and there. The arrangement is again simple and clean, with mostly acoustic picking, cello and glockenspiel. Lyrically this one almost feels like a grownup lullaby. “Forever in Love” returns to classic folk song form, with another sincere Steve vocal and tentative piano following his picked acoustic guitar. “I’m Staying In Bed” features ukulele and describes the kind of morning we’ve all had, where the only logical response to the day’s terrors is to get right back under the covers. It’s a sweetly funny sentiment, and the performance (mainly uke with lots of vocals) is open and loose. “Chasing Songs” starts with Stasiak’s always classy cello and Steve’s piano, producing clear echos of Paul McCartney in his chamber pop moods. Steve takes a solo vocal and it’s one of his better perfomances. “Was I wrong / spending my life chasing songs?” is a question many of us have entertained! The low frequencies are quite striking toward the end. “Life Moves On” could almost be “Chasing Songs Part Two,” with the mood and tone elevated to optimism and positivity. Steve again sings about singing, and is joined one last time by Colleen on chorus vocals and Stasiak’s cello. During the spoken word conclusion, you can almost see the stage lights dimming (though the tweety birds kind of breaks that illusion!) There’s many wonderful songs here and just as many nice performances, and fans of folk or acoustic music should definitely check it out!
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