Review: Cantilever

As regular readers know, I'm not really a reviewer, having far too much love for our form to really critique it as such. So I should preface this by noting that I'm far more of a fan than a critic, but when something becomes pretty much the only thing I listen to for a period of time stretching into days and weeks, I notice.



February and early March were largely given over to Jeff Murphy's Cantilever, the first ever solo project by a member of Shoes.

It's a delightful CD, recognizable not just because of Murphy's patented velvety growl and layered production, but also because of the kind of lyrical cleverness and innuendo, often buried, that one always expected from Shoes. I know I'm a lowbrow, but I like a man who offers to be his lover's vibrator, as Murphy does in the kickoff track "I'm a Tool for You."

It's logical to expect that Cantilever would be more Nerk-era Murphy than Shoes-era Murphy, but that's only partly true. "A Couple of Words" definitely evokes the Nerks' "Eyes on the Prize,"--though the Stevie Wonder keyboard does give it a different flavor. But "Never Let You Go," the soaring love song that stands out here, is very much in the mode of his earlier work--all dense vocals, hooks, and romance.

Some of the record is pretty stripped down as well: the terse, depressive anthem "Havin' a Bad Day," for example, is basically a rhythm track and a voice. It works, however, in this context, the form following the lyric (or vice versa). Murphy's always been one to play with the feel of pop songs (think of Shoes' "I Wanna Give It To You" or The Nerk Twins' "Two Women"). I would say that most of Murphy's major modes are represented here: the dreamy ("Someday Soon," "Unconditional Love") and the quirky ("She Don't Drive").

The only thing missing, as far as I can tell, is a real balls-out rocker in the mode of "Silence is Deadly"--its closest approximation here is in the political "Won't Take Yes for an Answer," which takes the current administration to task for its power-grubbing ways--"It's total control that you're after"--but even that is leavened with a softer acoustic section. (I posted the full lyrics here.) I don't think he's been this pissed since "Mayday."

Cantilever was recorded, like Todd Rundgren's Something/Anything or McCartney's first record, all on his own. At the beginning of the recording process, Short Order Recorder was still a going concern (it was sold in 04), so some of this was done in a full studio and the rest in Murphy's home studio. In terms of quality, it's hard to tell which is which, one benefit of the digital age. He puts his long and venerable production career to use for his own work here, and the effect is terrific. I highly recommend Cantilever for anyone familiar with Murphy's oeuvre, or for powerpop fans the world around.

You can order Cantilever here.




Sooooo... I heard a rumor someplace that Gary Klebe has a home studio too.