I have been a huge fan of folk music for many years now. I love how a folk song can just take you to another time and place, and really help you reflect on things. I really started getting into the folk music realm when I heard the song, “One of these things first,” by the great Nick Drake. I heard this song in a movie and it made me feel a way that no other music had made me feel or reflect ever before. We will be getting into him in a future week, but I thought you should know where my love of folk comes from.Alexi Murdoch was introduced to me through the movie, “Away We Go.” As we were watching the movie I noticed this great music playing along in the background as the couple are going through the trials and tribulations they are facing in their lives. I have seen enough movies in my time to know that if you have a great soundtrack, it can make or break a movie. Thomas, knowing my love for folk music made the comment “Is this Nick Drake?” to which I said, “no it’s not but I need to find out who he is.” Alexi’s beautiful music plays such an important role in the film that I can honestly say without him as the background music to this movie, I don’t think I would love it as much as I do. Once the movie ended I quickly looked up his album and listened to it, and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. Alexi had hit a nerve with me just in the way Mr. Drake had.
The reason I wanted to pick him was to see how everyone feels about folk music and if it has the same impact on you as it does for me. This is another genre that I think people either love or hate. Whatever your feelings are about folk music at the time, just for this week take Alexi’s music and see how it makes you feel. I also suggest watching the movie, “Away we go,” and see if it does indeed help to tell the story.
Suggested Listening:
1) Time Without Consequence
2) EP Towards the Sun- “It’s only Fear”
Folk Music is hit or miss with me. There is a very fine line between calming and boring for me. In general, Alexi Murdoch was more calming with only a few boring tracks. When I hear this music, it reminds me of the part in a chick flick where they just had the big fight and they take the extensive time apart from each other. During this time, the two people take the time to think about what they want and it is generally a calm and sulky time as there is not any fighting going on. This is typically the time that they play this type of music. Alexi fit in well in Away We Go, since the couple was having a hard time deciding what they wanted in life and where they wanted to live. So for me, this is good music to just chill out to and get lost in my own thoughts. My favorite tracks were All My Days, Song For You, the instrumental 12, and a track from the Away We Go soundtrack titled Towards the Sun. The two tracks that fell into the boredom bucket were Home and Blue Mind. I feel this is very comparable to Nick Drake and has about the same ratio of boring to eventful tracks. My lone complaint of Nick Drake is that I usually have a difficult time understanding his voice, so in that respect Alexi wins as I sometimes feel he sounds very similar to Anthony Kiedis of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. This was another artist that I can listen to the whole album from the beginning to end.
ReplyDeleteThe movie "Away We Go" was my introduction to Alexi, as well, his sound blended very well with the vision of director Sam Mendes. It's easy to get swept up in the melancholy of Alexi's voice, the key in listening to his music is his lyrics. His guitar picking on the first track of "Time Without Consequences" signifies a beginning of a journey, like a road trip through Alexi's life. Visuals, such as the movie, lend greatly to the depth of Alexi's music. His cadence and subject matter on Breathe echoes the music of Jason Molina and his group Songs:Ohia, the only difference is Murdoch's muffled baritone to Molina's tenor. Home opens the album up a little more with a spacey jam, a little reminicent of The Grateful Dead's Fire On the Mountain mixed with Radiohead's Airbag. The reoccurring theme's I keep getting in his music are bleak scenes of self discovery and escapism, like the creole tinged Dream About Flying. I can see Thomas' Anthony Kiedis reference on Love You More, I also get an early Jack Johnson vibe on this track and Orange Sky which is a plus for me. Orange Sky is my favorite tune and has a lot of warmth, almost like a James Taylor song. I've drawn lot's of comparrisons to great artists which bodes well for Mr. Murdoch and his future musical endeavors.
ReplyDeleteI was just told the EP came out before "T W C", I think I should have listened to it first. Some Day Soon struck a nerve with me, the lyrics about loving his father and seeing him soon and the female harmonizing, almost as if she is a consoling mother. Light and dark and shadows are always making cameos in Alexi's songs, I get the feeling he doesn't see life the way most people do. Repeated listenings of these albums will be more rewarding especially if put on an I-pod and taken on a hike or trip, as I said before, visuals certainly enhance the Alexi experience.
When it comes to folk music, I either generally like the old stuff such as Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Joan Baez or early Bob Dylan, or the really dark, end-of-the-world type stuff that Will Oldham, Angels of Light, or Current 93 produce. Somewhere in between the two spectrums, however, lies Nick Drake. His "Pink Moon" album is one of my favorites of all time, and at certain times while listening to Alexi Murdoch's album I lost track of the fact that I wasn't listening to Nick Drake himself. Therefore, I highly enjoyed most of "Time Without Consequence", as it was able to hit that sweet spot between the two ends of folk music that I really enjoy.
ReplyDeleteThe first song on the album is the most Nick Drake-like to me, actually. Alexi uses many of the same vocal inflections that Drake used, and the production and recording of the acoustic guitar along with the string section are almost identical. Aside from these similarities, though, Alexi does much to set himself apart from being just some sort of Nick Drake copycat. The song 'Home' is unlike most folk songs I've ever heard....I especially love when the fuzzed out guitars kick in, as loudness and distortion are definitely two things I wasn't expecting coming into listening to this album. The whole song is really huge sounding for this type of music, and has a really spacey feel that I enjoy. The centerpiece of the album to me was the song 'Wait', as it has a really epic sound from front to back, with it's ominous sounding low frequency noise in the background, that you can just tell is building up to something big, and when it hits it was worth the "wait" (no pun intended.....or actually, pun intended.) Finally comes the song 'Orange Sky', which I've heard probably a hundred times but never actually knew who the song belonged to. This is definitely my favorite song on the album, and does a brilliant job of pulling everything preceding it on the album together into a wonderful conclusion. The song is simply beautiful, as is the rest of the album.
I've never seen the movie "Away We Go", so I've yet to hear his contributions to the soundtrack. I can see though that a visual reference point would really enhance Alexi's music, so I definitely intend to see the movie as soon as possible. Overall, this was a very short but sweet week from Beth, and I certainly enjoyed her choice and thank her for finally allowing me to find out who the song 'Orange Sky' belonged to.
Sorry I'm a little late! It was a short week so I listened through earlier and didn't get a chance to comment until now. Give me a half hour or so.
ReplyDeleteBeth, when you mentioned "One of These Things First," am I correct in guessing you heard that on "Garden State"? I was in love with that soundtrack (not the movie, the soundtrack) during a good part of my junior and senior years of college, and I can credit it with my first exposure to music outside of pop and oldies radio stations. For that reason, "Orange Sky" was already familiar, although unusually, it did not turn out to be my favorite track this week.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed this week quite a bit and will most definitely keep an eye on Mr. Murdoch in the future. At first though, I had to get used to his voice. It was a little deeper and less weird than the likes I've been falling in love with lately, but I got used to it and actually grew to be quite fond.
The acoustics were really the highlight for me on this album. In "Breathe," I really like the guitar and the violin. Actually this whole song (and the rest of the album really) kind of reminded me of Dave Matthews' "Some Devil," which I love and will probably bring to focus in a future week of mine.
I love the emotion and beauty and the reality that's out there for all to see in this kind of music. In "Wait" you can feel the desperation in his voice, which makes listening more of an experience than just listening to a CD. "12" was another highlight for me for that reason.
Thanks Beth, for bringing this artist to light. I think we may be on a roll with these last couple of weeks. Bring on the goods, Justin!!
And I'm still dying to see that movie :)
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