Murphy, Stefan – Hospital Verses – New LPWe're excited to offer this new album from Murphy, the set much more reflective than the work he did with the band on the upcoming Sleeveens LP from Dirtnap, this nothing like anything you'd find on Dirtnap, this slowing the tempo and exploring much more melancholy territory, sounding like early morning observations, 3 AM gazing out hospital windows having a smoke and looking out from the steps outside some inner city setting watching the waves of the

We're excited to offer this new album from Murphy, the set much more reflective than the work he did with the band on the upcoming Sleeveens LP from Dirtnap, this nothing like anything you'd find on Dirtnap, this slowing the tempo and exploring much more melancholy territory, sounding like early morning observations, 3 AM gazing out hospital windows...having a smoke and looking out from the steps outside some inner city setting...watching the waves of the ocean lap up to the shore as the stars fade under the first rays of the day...sounding like that early morning skateboard ride that (I think) he sings about on the second song, the "hospital" in the title track helping set a mood that runs through the set, backed with band (and also mastered by Jim Diamond like the Sleeveens LP) but sounding like a "solo" outing, perhaps a Ray Davies influence surfacing, the Rolling Stones when reflective perhaps as well, hinting back to some of the more memorable and timeless records of the 1990s, the British folk of the 1960s, and the rural blues of long ago that influenced all that. While so different than the Sleeveens LP in so many ways--tempo, mood, subject...--it's easy to hear how his songwriting talents showing here were clearly a part of that Sleeveens LP. While the weight of the music piles on heavy layers throughout the set, late in the set, oddly with songs with titles such as "Horrid Prayers" and "When the Saints Come Crawling Home" seem to have some hints of hope, at least trying to lift out of gloom to feel some of the warmth of that coming day.  It almost seems like this comes before the Sleeveens material, this journey into darkness needed before you can lift out of it. It's not an album to dance this mess around like the Sleeveens LP (sorry to keep comparing the two), but it's a companion piece in some ways, and one of the more poignant albums to come from these trying times. Stefan Murphy clearly has a load of important things to say and is clearly a force to be reckoned with. -- winch