Ben Murphy's book Ears To The Ground is an exploration of the relationship between electronics, landscape and field recordings.
A little bit late to the party, but I thought you should know: there is a nice chapter on Leafcutter John's field-recording heavy Yes! Come Parade With Us album in Ben Murphy's recent Ears To The Ground book for Velocity Press.
Review: Ben Murphy’s second single ‘The Edge’ wields a storming indie sound amidst lyrics tinged with his personal struggles through anxiety
North-west London based indie-pop up-comer Ben Murphy is storming off the heels of his debut single ‘All I Do’, a remarkable hit that saw the attraction of thousands of monthly listeners and even more streams, all falling for his incredible storytelling talents and emphatic sound. His newest and second single ‘The Edge’ found itself written on the old broken Piano in London Euston Station after missing his last train home, an intimate moment shared with a scattered station and now audiences everywhere.
An atmospheric rising of synth leads things into ‘The Edge’, adding an enchanting edge to the track’s sound before thudding beats simmer into the soundscape atop the shining undertones. This base of sound feels easy-going and almost comforting, but the ambience completely shifts with the introduction of Ben’s vocals laced through it, adding a haunting emotional resonance in his downbeat but agile singing drenched in a melancholic aching. Vibrant electric guitar joins into the concoction, glowing with every single strum and adding a hint of positivity weaved between the lows, paralleling the narrative’s shifting emotion and struggles. The chorus doesn’t offer much of a shift in sound from the verse with just a few heightened instrumentals and sprinklings of sounds, captivating you instead on the lyrics that’ll hook you onto each word and have you chanting along regardless of the weight of the words. An intimate chorus-based bridge pairs things back towards the end, falling into just electric guitar strums and Ben’s vocals alone for pure heart-wrenching focus on the narrative at hand before things spiral into one final climactic chorus end.
Penned from a very real and heart-wrenching journey through Ben’s own struggles with mental health, ‘The Edge’ explores the shattering impact that anxiety can have on your life and the lengths it can drive you towards just to feel a sense of normality. As the chorus hook proclaims ‘it’s not just another night out, seems like it’s every time now’ , Ben’s weighty words relate to real life events as he found himself overdoing his drinking at gigs just to garner a sense of courage in speaking with strangers to progress his music career. Aware that his behaviour is having a negative impact on those around him, he asks ‘am I weighing you down darling?’, struggling to get by but seemingly unable to stop himself from continuing this downhill cycle. Making others concerned with his actions, lyrics like ‘making excuses to your mother while I’ve been drinking every night’ only further carry the burden of his behaviour, feeling a sense of shame and yet seeing this is a necessary evil to putting himself out there. More rhetorical lines like ‘how long have I been awake?’ exude Ben’s detachment from reality, pushing himself so hard that he can no longer keep track of anything while he stumbles through to make it work. So deeply infused with his own story, ‘The Edge’ is an absolutely aching lyrical journey that many in the same boat can likely relate with all too well, just wanting to find a slither of confidence that everyone else seems to so naturally carry whilst driving yourself into the ground trying to keep it up.
Check out ‘The Edge’ here to feel the heaviness of Ben’s story whilst his uplifting indie sound carries you through!
Written by: Tatiana Whybrow
Photo Credits: Oscar Blair
// This coverage was created via Musosoup, #SustainableCurator.
