Murder by Death | Bitter Drink, Bitter Moon
Bitter Drink, Bitter Moon is the sixth studio album by the band Murder By Death. It is similar in sound to their last few albums, a sort of alt-rock/americana blend that is pretty popular these days. If the band is known at all it’s because their song “Coming Home” was used in the trailer for Tarantino’s Inglorious Basterds. But they have a lot of great songs sprinkled throughout their back catalog. They really build on their earlier works with this album; the harmonies are stronger, the cello more beautiful, the lyrics wiser. It’s really worth a listen and sadly I feel like people would rather criticize them than give them an actual chance.
Authenticity. This is the problem that we’re going to tackle today class. People have faulted the band because lead singer Adam Turla’s baritone vocals. Weirdly, not because people think he can’t sing, but because they think he is ripping off Johnny Cash. Cash is a legend, but he doesn’t own the rights to singing country-ish music with a deep voice, right? And if every musician has to rip off someone, why not rip off someone great? Murder By Death does own up to it: I don’t think they are fooling anyone with a song titled “Sometimes the Line Walks You”. They love Johnny Cash. So do I. You probably do too. He’s a big influence on a lot of people. They just wear it on their sleeves.
The baritone vocals seem to bother people for another reason. Again, not because they sound unpleasant, but because Turla didn’t always sing that way. For the band’s first couple albums, Turla sang in more of a tenor range, then by his own admission he took singing lessons and realized he was more comfortable singing baritone. The band’s sound as a whole changed as well, from sounding more like Cursive to sounding more like William Elliot Whitmore. But people criticize them like they have a dark, shady past. It’s not criminal for an artist to change their sound. Musicians improve, they find styles that suit them better, and they should be rewarded. Or least listened to. But unlike Whitemore, whose bluesy Americana roots sound comes from an actual farmer with a banjo, Murder by Death will forever be stigmatized as a band who was discovered as teenagers opening for Thursday. Can you ever be considered “authentic” if your first musical footnote is being noticed by former the kings of Screamo?
There’s a particular attachment to blues/alt-country/roots/americana music being real. If the thickly bearded guy singing about whiskey was singing to 14 year old girls with heavy eye make-up a decade ago what kind of credibility does he have? Murder by Death wouldn’t be the first act to not truly be accepted by this musical community. Pop acts like Ben Kweller and John Mayer have tried their hand as making alt country and blues influenced records, as have indie arts like Conor Oberst, but people often struggle to get past the name. I mean once you go “Your Body is a Wonderland”, it is is pretty tough to play the real musician (or man) card any longer. Kweller’s Changing Horses may have been a one album detour to pedal steel city, and Oberst’s Mystic Valley Band a distraction for a bratty kid playing indie music for too long, but they should be allowed to dabble right? What happens when you dabble in a new style for longer than your previous style? When do you earn your real musician stripes?
Murder by Death has been developing their “new” sound for almost 10 years. I think it’s safe to they are not experimenting anymore. This isn’t college. And it’s doubtful that they’re doing this for the money either. They would have found a way to combine that signature cello with house music by now. Bitter Drink, Bitter Moon is not flawless. It has its dull moments and not everything they try on the album works. But it’s another installment from a band that at its best deserves your attention, and at it’s worst doesn’t need you to discredit them for their early work. You probably created deplorable music far worse than anything Turla and company did when you were younger. And if nothing else you definitely listened to worse.
The Drink: An old-fashioned. Why? The only drink I know of the top of my head that has bitters is an old-fashioned, and I find them to be delicious.
Bake
Latest posts by Bake (see all)
- Ben Nichols @ The Turf Club, St. Paul, Mn 6/5/16 - June 10, 2016
- Houndmouth | From the Hills Below the City - May 29, 2016
- Sturgill Simpson | A Sailor’s Guide to Earth - May 15, 2016
[…] By Death| Big Dark Love – Adam Turla’s voice previously criticized for trying to out baritone Johnny Cash has gone back to human on this album, however too many of […]