Review Summary: Nothing dies slower and harder than the self-employed
What is there to be said about Conor Murphy? In modern emo, I think it is safe to say he is among the most interesting and talented frontmen around. He has done everything from bare-bones emo records in the early Foxing days to experimental and eclectic emo/hardcore/pop on the latter releases with the band.
This is his third solo effort, following the end of Foxing, and there are a lot of expectations surrounding what his next step will be. Since his last solo album contained a lot of fan favourites like «In Poor Taste» and «Table Rock Antichrist», it is safe to say he has built up hype outside of his Foxing fame as well.
Where the last Foxing album intentionally felt like tearing down a big monument of his own making, «Murphy Horse» feels like picking up the remaining pieces and reassembling them into something that might fit into Conor’s life and musical aspirations in today’s world.
Lush and falsetto-driven, the opening track «Corpse Flower» really sets the stage with Conor’s desperate and weirdly seductive vocal performance. He really shows his chops here and proves that his voice is a chameleon, using the same type of delivery that would sound so manic on tracks like «Gameshark» from «Nearer My God» and making it sound so yearning and sane instead. If there ever was a track for Conor to croon like an emo version of Frank Sinatra, it is this one.
«Capstone» feels in many ways like a regression, akin to ideas and sounds that were found on «Draw Down the Moon» that just don’t rub the listener the right way. The Lucy Dacus feature doesn’t feel necessary or exciting, like, let’s say, this year’s The Saddest Landscape album, which contained the track «The Invisible Hurt» with Julien Baker truly standing out in her performance. That is a great example of a guest appearance that feels both natural and earned.
That said, there is something infectious about the driving drumbeat and the loose, jangly feel of the guitars on the track, so not all is lost. The lyrical aspect is witty and nonsensical, which feels kind of abrupt after the poetic approach to the writing on the previous track. Conor is no stranger to switching between genres and sounds, but in this case he doesn’t really bring it home like he did on the more disjointed and bipolar Foxing albums.
«Murphy Horse» and «Love In Every Direction» follow in the same vein, instrumentation- and sound-wise, but succeed more in capturing the vibe and feel that «Capstone» almost tried too hard to emulate. Conor’s existential dread and detached delivery of lines such as «Murphy, you could be a horse in the next life, wouldn’t that be nice?» are guaranteed to make you smile. Even better, the melody and hook are immediate earworms.
His masterful switching between angelic falsetto and loud yelling that seems to reach the limits of his vocal range on «Love In Every Direction» is both impressive and as catchy as the previous song, with the existential dread taking a more cutesy and romantic turn.
«Today Was A Wash» sticks out as Conor’s most Cure-esque song to date. With its lush synths and throbbing bass, Conor uses his lower register and makes the listener wonder why he didn’t make «Capstone» sound more akin to this one.
As eclectic as it is genius, «Friendly’s» mixes jazzy elements with occasional funky guitars, and the upbeat instrumentation is really the polar opposite of the gloomy lyrical content. This track really feels like a continuation or culmination of many of the ideas and concepts Conor brought to the table on «Nearer My God».
The same sentiment can be said for «People Like You», but here it is a continuation and culmination of things Conor tried to do on «Draw Down the Moon». This is maybe even an improvement on its predecessor. This is the most perfect Smidley or Conor pop song composition to date.
«Robin Egg» also sounds very much like a throwback to «Draw Down the Moon», but where it doesn’t live up to the catchiness of «People Like You», it makes up for it with its full, warm, and richly layered instrumentation, which could very well be found on an album like Bon Iver’s self-titled.
«Nearer to You» is the album’s most bare-bones song, and lyrically it is not too far removed from what would be expected on Foxing’s self-titled, with its dread of impending doom, even though it is not as bleak and hopeless in feel.
The closer, «Old Things Never Die», is the most rocking track of the bunch and ends the album on a high note as a Foxing self-titled-light version of a heavy hitter. A good song, but not much more to add to it apart from that.
Smidley’s «Murphy Horse» really is an astoundingly good album with very few low points, but when the album misses, it really sticks out like a sore thumb in the track list. Maybe we have just been spoiled by the quality and musical choices that Conor makes, but the missteps on this album don’t come from something being bad or necessarily out of place. Rather, it is more a problem with not using certain tools or guests to their fullest potential.
This is bound to happen when a musician like Conor tries to accomplish similar things to what he did in a band, but now has to do it all alone. It will take some trial and error.
Despite all of this, it is safe to say this album comes highly recommended and has something to offer almost every listener. It isn’t as demanding or shocking as, let’s say, Foxing’s self-titled, but this one has strong legs of its own to stand on. The only thing standing in its way is how stacked this year has been for music, meaning it is very likely that it will get overshadowed or easily forgotten by anyone other than Conor’s die-hard fans.
