Kevin Morby has accustomed us to high quality albums since his debut in 2013. His Harlem River is full of great songs, and so are the subsequent albums, from City Music to Sundowner, where alt-country jingles enter the cortex but never really come out. Here is an artist who knew how to avoid missteps over the songs offered.
Posted yesterday at 5:00 p.m.
And here we come This Is a Photograph, his sixth opus. Morby plays the card of nostalgia and memories to the fullest, which is not a first for the singer from Memphis, the cradle of American rock’n’roll, where the ghosts of Elvis, Johnny Cash, Isaac Hayes, BB King and Otis Redding are still hovering.
Musically, Morby does not play in the tillers of these disappeared artists. Nope, This Is a Photograph nothing funk or bluegrass. We are closer to the world of Bob Dylan – heard folk rock, catchy choruses, the use of dry guitar – and a bit of that of Lou Reed – colorful stories, detached voice. More current, we think of War On Drugs, many times.
While listening to This Is a Photographwe can detect all of Kevin Morby’s love for the music written by the greats of rock who marked the turning point of the 1970s. And also all the love he has for those who have built the person he is today today.
To recount his past and his youthful memories, the singer adds to traditional folk and country sounds a few well-placed trumpets, a happy collaboration with Erin Rae – in duet on the piece Bittersweet, TN – as well as a refreshing classical orchestration. The violins become ethereal in the second part of the album, where Morby slows down the tempo and lets the stories take over the musical construction.
With This Is a Photograph, Kevin Morby invites us to enter his family home to leaf through his family photo album with him. And we accept the invitation with great joy.
Alt country
This Is a Photograph
Kevin Morby
Dead Oceans