Singing Saw - Kevin Morby (2016)

_Ideated from: going through some of my “best of month” lists I’ve been keeping for years. _

This is off the “best of month, April 2016” list. Other things on this list: Hurt & The Merciless by The Heavy, A Sailor’s Guide To Earth by Sturgill Simpson, The Hope Six Demolition Project by PJ Harvey

This is Morby’s third solo album. He also played in the band Woods, but I hadn’t heard them until after he left. So this was my first exposure to any of his music, and it’s really stuck with me.

These songs aren’t really “dark” in a traditional sense. A better word is “stark” like a log cabin in an empty field. There’s a lot of lazy atmosphere, but also layers of extra color on top from piano, strings, horns, fuzzy guitar, and the actual titular singing saw that gives them a slow intensity in places.

There’s a joy mixed with melancholy here that’s inviting and offputting at the same time.

This is all good, yes, but but not very quantitative. One thing I can put a finger on: the BASS. My God, the bass frequencies on this record. I don’t know if it was in the engineering or the mixing or mastering or what, but the bass register is crystal clear and just bottomless. It’s the first thing that stuck out to me. And while it’s not “bass music” as such, it adds an amazing depth to the songs.

Tracks I Liked:

I Have Been To The Mountain - maybe the most intense song on here. It builds a lot of momentum and charges through. Also, a guitar solo that would have owned in Guitar Hero.

Singing Saw - Sounds bluesy without really being bluesy. More like doom-folk.

Dorothy - A more straightforward rocker, solid all the way through.

Black Flowers - has a distinct Leonard Cohen vibe