Andrew Morgan
As Long As We Are Together (Broken Horse)
Where others might have been tempted to over-orchestrate matters, here, everything has been put purely and simply on display. You can almost see it, taste and feel it. Morgan has a lovely voice and he uses it as an instrument in its own right, rather than just letting it lie grandly atop a backing track, as so many bands are guilty of doing. It’s clear right from the start that Morgan, a bit like Bon Iver this time last year, has suffered greatly from heartbreak. Unlike Iver’s overrated exercise in navel-gazing and self-pity though, this disc is heartrendingly lacking in sentimentality.
This is a very lived-in record, the sort one can imagine putting on at four o’clock in the morning, having failed to pull again and crying along to for a couple of hours, glass of whisky in one’s hand. It also has a real oneness with human nature. These songs know how you feel because, like you, they’ve been there and they know what to do and to say to pull you through this slump. Here’s to intelligent adult pop reclaiming its place in the world.
Jonathan Muirhead
