This third album by Neil Pennycook aka Meursault is something of a comeback, after several years of not using this moniker for his musical efforts. He is pretty familiar to ITM readers so we won’t go too much into his pedigree, let us just say that you should check him out, readers!
In past years NP has scaled the heights of critical and audience acclaim and this is a definite return, with more to say and emote. This has also been a long term thing for the incomparable cottage label Song by Toad, who released the first Meursault material quite a few years ago.
Things open with the “intro” track, a raspy woozy fiddle over some other odd sounds, wordless except for the last sample of a female voice intoning the title of the album.
Second off is a guitar-based crooner, no percussion, an interior monologue telling of wilderness years and trying to get back, Pennycook wailing out the words in his distinctive tone.
We go on to a more full band track ‘The Mill’, with piano, low key drumming and a female voice duetting with NP. A beautiful melody and piano riff, centering on the “We’ve seen it all before” chorus, is this world weariness visiting Edinburgh? – very soulful anyway.
Next up is ‘Ode to Gremlin’, more piano and guitar, poised between folk and something rockier, a distant relative of The Frabbits, in a good way. ‘Kloptgeist’ has a weird jolty feel to it and is an extraordinary track, “memories not my own”, piano again filling the space between the voice and the sparse accompaniment. ‘Oh Sarah’ is more upbeat and attempts to be joyful although not entirely sure if this is fully pulled off, more piano and guitar strumming, bit of a ‘Cecilia’ by Simon and Garfunkel vibe going on here. ‘Belle Amie’ is ballady, slower with some spindly guitar lines, a love song perhaps… ‘Gone’ starts with some electronic burps and buzzes then builds into piano, still quite slow, a lament of someone being “Gone”.
Title track ‘I Will Kill Again’ starts with a buzz of different sampled dialogue, then continues with a sampled backing track while NP croons over the piano, telling us that the “trick is in the telling” of said stories. It explodes into strings and battered percussion (electronic) and more female backing vocals.
Last track ‘A Walk In The Park’ is another reflective musing on life, “sitting on a park bench”, “seeing doors opening and closing”, getting quite philosophical and being “reminded of the beauty in everyone”, a very human emotion – still missing someone though.
So all in all a very personal-sounding and open-book of an album, we are very glad to have Meursault back in our lives, thanks very much.