All of it matters.Įach of the seven tracks offers the same lesson. Murdoch, who spends much of his time on a wooden sailing boat like Noah, realizes change happens fast enough. “Noah’s crazily chipping away at his ark / While all of us ready ourselves to go into the dark”, he sings. He understands the importance of taking an unhurried approach to life. Murdoch sings about a “Slow Revolution” on this disc, and indeed that’s what he does here. Yet this too is a daring move, as he has released so little music over the years. The disc is only a paltry seven songs that clock in at 37 minutes. Murdoch takes the opposite tack than this trio by stripping everything down, rather than creating an overloaded soundtrack, but he is just as ambitious in his own way. But for some perverse reason, that makes this extremely hip in the same sense that the latest records by Kanye West, Janelle Monae, and Joanna Newsome are - Towards the Sun takes big risks and puts it all out there. Not only is the disc extremely quiet and the lyrics religiously affected, the melodies also move at a glacial pace. Still, one cannot imagine a less hip record than this. More like, these musicians added shade to shade. Although the term ‘fleshed out’ is not quite appropriate for an album this sparse.
He took the tracks back to New York City and fleshed them out with the help of Brooklyn hipsters Jon Natchez and Kelly Pratt (Beirut) and Kyle Resnick (The National). Murdoch recorded the album in a single night in Vancouver back in 2009 while touring North America. Is Murdoch singing about God the father, mother Mary, and the meaning of life, or is he singing about some more archetypal and mythic parents, or even his own ma and pa? The answer is not clear, but on a very real level, who cares? What matters is that Murdoch gives a heartbreakingly lovely performance. Consider the hauntingly beautiful “Some Day Soon” that begins, “I love my father and I love him well / And I hope to see him some day soon”, and then morphs into “And you know that mother I’d be lying / If I didn’t tell you I was afraid of dying”. While as far as I know Murdoch does not embrace any particular religion nor has he been born again, the subtly intoned lyrics offer traces of Christian idolatry. Perhaps this evocation of church is not accidental. Compared to Murdoch, Sufjan Stevens is a shouter and Arvo Part’s Estonian snowscapes resemble Tchaikovsky’s “1812 Overture” - and Murdoch’s music recalls both Stevens and Part in its self-conscious spirituality. The extreme quiet of acoustic singer songwriter Alexi Murdoch’s new record suggests this kind of holy silence. And then there’s the tranquility of the church, where the absence of noise takes on an almost physical sense of a vacuum, so that one can meditate and reflect in order to summon some kind of higher spirit. There’s the stillness of the woods, with the wind blowing through the trees, birds chirping their songs, and the scattered noises of other critters small and large.
There’s the silence of the library, punctuated by the ruffling of pages, patrons talking in hushed tones, and the soft conversations of the librarians. Granted, the three songs, recreated from Murdoch’s 2002 EP, Four Songs, are not up to par with the original, but, hey, who can compete with the original, right? Not to be disheartened though, Time Without Consequence compensates with its ability to leave its listener with a sense of hope, and a complete and utter sense of peace by the end of the eleventh song.The words “quiet place” can evoke several different scenarios. Murdoch’s lyrics may often hover over melancholy waters, yet Time Without Consequence is interspersed with songs such as “Song for You,” “Breath” and the much acclaimed “Orange Sky.” Turned up, these songs easily draw you into Murdoch’s incredible ability to manipulate rhythm and sound, to form his celebrated somber, yet sweet melody.
All my days alexi murdoch lyrics full#
Although Murdoch is not an entirely new artist, his work’s recognition hasn’t reached the full splendor it deserves. Stream “All My Days” at /aleximurdochĪlexi Murdoch’s Time Without Consequence is an ingenious blend of haunting acoustics and melodic lyrics reminiscent of Nick Drake.
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