Album Review: Postdata – Self Titled - 2010
(Alex's Underrated Album Series)
Last year Paul Murphy of “Wintersleep” fame released an album with the help of his brother Michael. The album, and also the pair, is called “Postdata”. The album was written, in part, as a testament to the Murphy’s late grandparents. The work presents a group of songs that most people would assume to be Wintersleep unplugged. However this isn’t really the case. What the album actually displays is the simple genius of Murphy’s songwriting. These songs are built on very few chords, and in most cases are incredibly brief. But the stripped down feeling that is made by an acoustic guitar, an organ, and sometimes some synthesizer, lays perfect support for the powerfully biting and often moving, or even troubling lyrics.
The album opens with a slow and ambient, “Lazurus”. Once past this track it follows with the real gold. From the second track to the eighth, the album is just about perfect. Paul Murphy shows a level of vocal range that was never apparent in any of the “Wintersleep” albums. Singing high and sweet, it is almost shocking that this is the man who later went on to sings such tracks as, “Terrible Man” on the following and quite disappointing “New Inheritors”.
My personal choice for the highlight of the album is the fourth song, “Paranoid Clusters”. This song is two minutes and twenty-one seconds of heaven on earth. I suggest listening at a near deafening volume, because the crescendo that is built by its ending is entirely moving, and immediately memorable.
Sadly this album came and went much too soon. Shelved too quickly, I imagine, for the release of the next “Wintersleep” record, which doesn’t even touch how good “Postdata” is. So I beg anyone out there who is willing, to get a copy of this album as soon as possible. I doubt you’ll be disappointed.
http://postdatamusic.com
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