EP Review : The Morgues - Now Look At Me

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The Morgues have just ruined my day. I was in the perfect mood to morph into an acid-tongued music hack and their new EP turns out to be great...Bugger.  ...............................
Photo: Lacey Lampe (laceylampe.arloartists.com)
So who are these annoyingly good New Yorkers? According to the mandatory myspace page they’re a mix of random musicians - including bassist Amanda Tannan from Stellastarr* - and even a bespoke tailor (don’t ask). They play gutsy, shoegaze folk that owes as much to the 60s movement as it does to the British alternative scene a couple of decades ago.
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Eponymous opener ‘Now Look At Me Now’ is a simple, Dylan influenced guitar and vocals number, with a deadpan lyrical narrative and post-modern canned laughter and applause added in with a sly wink. It’s a cosy, angsty blanket of a song.
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‘Handful of Roses’ is fantastically gloomy pop where tormented vocals accompany jangly, reverb soaked melodies that verge on shoegaze. It perversely achieves happiness and melancholy in equal measure, saying less “everything’s alright” and more “it’s all fucked but let’s not worry about it.”
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Photo - (laceylampe.arloartists.com)
‘Arms for Legs’ veers into 80s Goth pop territory, sounding something like Echo and The Bunnymen; yet the boy-girl vocals are also reminiscent of The Velvet Underground Ft. Nico as the band hush their way through this final song, playing new wave guitar lines and splashing swirly reverb just about everwhere.
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Ok, so The Morgues aren’t doing anything new, but what they do is executed with perfection. Their music sounds like songs you’ve loved for years. Retreading old ground is always a risk but they dig up enough nostalgia to allow you to slightly fall in love with their music. Listen to this record in the early hours with a bottle of whisky for full gushing effect. Superb.
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MP3: The Morgues - Caterpillar (Taken from the 'Are Fast Cars' EP)
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Where The Sidewalk Ends by TheMorgues

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