Kevin Morby - "City Music"

Kevin Morby is a Indie Rock/Folk singer and Ex-Frontman of Woods, one of the more interesting acts in modern folk.  Since his departure from the band though, Kevin's solo career has Sky Rocketed, but also has Woods.  With Kevin's 2013 debut "Harlem River", he brought his usual fantastic songwriting to the masses with a much more toned down and straightforward sound compared to the usual onslaught of Psych Folk that is Woods.  This wasn't a perfect album, but it was a great intro to Kevin's sound. I felt like some of the later tracks as well as some of the longer ones were a little sloppy, but Kevin came into his own light very quickly.  On "Still Life", Kevin brought in a much smokier atmosphere and some broader instrumentals as well.  But he also brought in a more Folk Rock sound opposed to just casual Folk, a sound that I thought Kevin did so well with.  Kevin however completely outdid himself with 2016's "Singing Saw".  Not only was this Kevin's most mature recording to date, but this was a seriously compelling and interesting album to date.  Between his deadpan vocals against the stunning backdrop on "Destroyer" and his Fuzzy Psych-Folk Rocker attitude of "I Have Been To The Mountain", this album quite frankly rules.  These new singles have been for the most part pretty solid from Kevin, so let's dive deeper!

(This track alone got me into Kevin's stuff)

This album starts off with “Come To Me Now”, and one this is for sure, I certainly love the atmosphere on this one.  The dreary synths and the very slow paces atmosphere actually goes wonderfully with Kevin’s usual very deadpan vocal performance.  But he keeps things interesting with his very colorful and vivid lyrics.  There’s actually a bunch of really stunning instrumentals, which is something that Kevin really hasn’t dove that hard into.  But i really gives “Come To Me Now” a very big atmosphere, it literally sounds like everyone is closing in on Kevin’s some performance.  Kevin has always had a real way of writing a love song, and this is certainly a good one.  “Come To Me Now” is actually pretty damn breathtaking, not to mention the Lou Reed influence that has always sort of been in Kevin’s music has reached it’s most prevalent.  It’s a really stunning intro to this album.  “Crybaby” is more or less from start to finish what I wanted to hear from Kevin.  On his last album, he really started bringing in some more rock elements to compliment his usual Folky plucking’s, and it came off great.  Not so shockingly, so does this.  Kevin here sounds so comfortable, and I have to commend his dedication and the way he’s tying in all of these city themes, as well as concepts of city life.  There’s a very old school sense of Rock and Roll here as well.  Plus, not to mention, I’ve always had such a deep love of Kevin’s more aggressive and more upbeat vocals which are on display here.  Next up is “1234”, and while Kevin has certainly done more upbeat tracks in the past, even heavy tracks like this, I really don’t get this track at all.  As far as I’m concerned, this track really doesn’t fit on this album in the slightest.  I mean, this album is pretty solid overall, but I really don’t think this needed Kevin Morby doing 2 minutes of his best Ramones impression.  However, no pun intended, Kevin gets right back on track with the very smokey and bluesy “Aboard My Train”.  It starts out a little slow, but as far as imagery goes, this track is absolutely dripping with it, and that’s always something that’s always attracted me to Kevin’s music.  As this track goes on however, It just gets more and more bluesy and the instrumentals just keep puling up over Kevin’s awesome performance.  I didn’t really think going into this album was going to be as seamlessly tied to city life, but it’s done pretty expertly.  

Now, on “Dry Your Eyes”, I do really like the smokey atmosphere as well as the very bare sounds of the instrumentals.  Not to mention, as this album goes on Kevin keeps pushing in a much bluesier direction, which I do really like.  However, come on now Kevin, this one is seriously lazy as lyrics go.  I just know from experience how well he can bring us into a track, and this is far from up to standard.  Kevin’s performance however is solid and the soulful backing vocals on this one end up making this slightly more listenable.  Overall “Dry Your Eyes” is just a little too sluggish for my liking.  But if this is seriously my “weak” point of the album, this overall remains pretty commendable.  Kevin offers up a short interlude next in the form of “Flannery”.  Now, there really isn’t that much to pick up here.  But for an excerpt here that’s added in just to bring in some more of this City Living feeling, it doesn’t come off that bad.  The album’s title track is up next.  “City Music” is the sort of Psych Folk rocker that I honestly was expecting to hear a little more of on here.  It’s laid back and relaxing, but I love the extended guitar passages that give this one a seriously dream like feel.  My only real slight issue with this track is just how long it takes to really get going.  However, not so shockingly, once it get’s rolling “City Music” is just the sort of confident Folk track that I was dying to hear going into this album.  It’s expansive, it has a huge feel to it, and most importantly it’s probably the most epic track Morby has touched.  Even when things speed up and turn into an all out rocker in the last two minutes or so, things work out smoothly.  Hell, Kevin even sounds a little unhinged in all of those yells, more please!  But then we have tracks like “Tin Can” that really don’t do much for me at all.  I feel like Kevin in too many ways is going for too much of an old school Rock track on this one.  But the result is seriously making me wish for the much simpler days of “Singing Saw”.  Lyrically, this one just seems so far from what made earlier tracks on here so straightforward. There are a lot of solid elements on “Tin Can”, like how instrumentally diverse this album continues to be.  But overall, I just feel like Kevins usual deadpan performance on this on really doesn’t come off nearly as well.  Instrumentally however, I do remain hooked at least.  

At this point in the album, I’m eager to hear some more stripped down tracks that come off well, and “Caught In My Eye” is just the one I wanted to hear.  I love the very groovy drums and the dreamy vibe that almost reminds me of something off of the Real Estate album from earlier this year.  It’s smooth, and Kevin’s very hazy performance among this atmosphere simply comes off wonderfully, MUCH more so than on that last track.  I love the slide guitar as well as the chilling backing vocals.  So hell yea, as far as more straightforward Folk Jams go, “Caught In My Eye” is seriously memorable.  Morby continues to slow it down big time for some of these late album tracks with “Night Time”.  As far as a straight up Folk tune goes, man is this ever good.  It’s very smokey sounding and smooth, which is totally fitting for a track about the night time.  Kevin’s performance continues however to be completely entrancing, between his very hip vocals and his nearly poetic verses.  But this track is different in a way.  Because of how stripped down it is, we’re alone here with these very entrancing guitars and Kevin’s melodic vocals, making “Night Time” seriously hypnotic.  Tracks like this really are a truly stunning representation of life the city, and Kevin did such a wonderful job putting this all together.  But after these last few stripped down tunes, a more rock oriented and upbeat track like “Pearly Gates’ is absolutely needed.   I love some of Kevin’s stunning one liners and lyrics here, which is something that throughout this entire album I haven’t had a single bad thing to say about.  For more of a rock oriented track, “Pearly Gates’ is stunning.  Here, Kevin goes deep into what happens after we pass away.  The results are honestly pretty stunning, and the added keyboards and strings here make for nice touches as well.  Our finale here is “Downtown’s Lights”.  Now, I don’t have any problem with ending this album off on a slower and folkier note.   And lyrically, I feel like Kevin still has his head in the game.  But I feel like “Downtown’s Lights” overall is just so slugging and quite frankly almost boring.  I feel like there have been about 4 other tracks on this album that would have made better finales and come off so much grander and huge sounding.  Kevin’s performance thankfully makes this finale a little more interesting, because he does end up stating at his creative and poetic peak. 

Rating: 7.8/10

Give A Listen To: “Come To Me Now”, “Crybaby”, “City Music”, "Pearly Gates"

Overall Thoughts:  Kevin Morby with "City Music" continues to be one of the more poetic and interesting Singer/Songwriters around.  This isn't as Folk Rock oriented as his last album, "Singing Saw".  But Kevin's stunning lyricism and much more fleshed out instrumentals make this an album you really don't want to miss.