This E.P. has been kicking around for a while now but it’s new to me so here goes. Where to start? The inscrutable but kinda cool name? The immense song titles (‘Sometimes The Line Walks You’, ‘American Carny Theme’)? The evocative American noir black and white sleeve artwork? They all grabbed my attention and thankfully this U.S. quartet have the songs to back it all up. Okay, so I’m a sucker for this kinda stuff. The lead track is a dark, dirty rollicking number, combining killer hooks, a neat line in narrative lyrics, an inventive rhythm section and some gorgeous keyboards topping it all off. The vocal shifts between defiant and broken, regretful and vengeful, ending in a distorted call and response sequence as it tells of a life wasted, ending in incarceration and plans for a jailbreak. It has a wonderful cinematic scope to it as well as being a great song.It’s hard to pin down Murder By Death. At times they remind me of Nick Cave on his Southern gothic trip, there’s elements of Sixteen Horsepower, Mark Lanegan and These Immortal Souls, but only traces as Murder By Death have a distinctive sound of their own.
‘Dynamite Mine’ is a demo track but sounds pretty fully formed with its eerie cello and backing vocals. It’s a gentler beast than the lead song but still pretty fantastic. Sonny Bono’s ‘Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down’) (as sung by Nancy Sinatra and used on Kill Bill) is the weakest of the four songs here which is pretty indicative of the quality of Murder By Death’s songwriting. It’s a stripped down, enjoyable rendition. ‘American Carny Theme’ pretty much does what it says on the tin. It’s a beautifully twisted instrumental, mixing an Eastern European folk feel to its odd vibe. If ever someone gets around to filming Cave’s novel And The Ass Saw The Angel this should be in the soundtrack. Failing that, Jim Jarmusch should sign up Murder By Death for a movie collaboration immediately.
A wonderful record indeed. Better still, there is a debut U.K. album In Bocca al Lupo out as well now through Cooking Vinyl so that’s top of my wants list. For now, this E.P. is on constant rotation. Unadulterated twisted genius.