Kevin Morby‘s latest offering, City Music, is the perfect halfway house between slow melancholic blues and lucid rock.
Another outstanding compilation of songs to follow up Morby’s Harlem River and Singing Saw, City Music is the 29-year-old’s most refined record yet. The Lou Reed inspired album hosts a diverse range of thoughts and feelings, many of which focus on the cities close to the singer’s heart.
Themes of nostalgia are prominent on the record with 0ne of the tracks, ‘1-2-3-4‘, even shouting out Jim Carroll and the Ramones. “Joey! Johnny! Dee Dee! Tommy!” is chanted by the singer before abruptly closing with “They were all my friends / Then they died!”.
One of the former Woods bassist’s most notable moments from recording City Music is the use of an old pump organ from the 1800’s on the opening track. The powerful instrument creates a reverberated ambience which like a thick mist is more than easy to lose your way in.
As the Kansas City native’s most valued memory from recording the album, the musician describes his fondness of the organ: “I wish I could remember the brand—but I don’t. This was my favourite part of recording this album, playing this thing and pumping air into it with the foot pedals, it had such a presence from the moment I entered the studio.”
Clocking in at a comfortable 49 minutes, City Music is a refreshing journey into classic sounding folk rock, cinematic sound design and everything in between.
