by Joseph Purcell
After initially starting their voyage as a three-piece, Grand Rapids based band, Major Murphy, have gained a member and a more deliberate and conceptual focus on new single, Access. Shaped by the driving ambition of vocalist, Jacob Bullard, they return with the title track from their forthcoming long player of the same name – and it’s a breezy four and a half minutes of elegant, shimmering pop, tinged with a slice of Americana.
A chugging, slow burning triumph, the pulsing drums are intersected by razor sharp guitars and the same dreampop magic hour harmonies of the 70’s Laurel Canyon scene, which Access is inspired by – and here, their desire to create a record founded in the same energy that helped Bullard fall in love with music as a child becomes a reality.
The title track sets out the direction for the upcoming record. This collision of youthful exuberance and a more classic sound is the central ideal that has driven Major Murphy through this creative process, garnering praise from Katie Crutchfield (Waxahatchee), among others.
On the upcoming LP, Crutchfield commented, ‘It’s an album that’s remarkably cohesive – a striking relic in an age where ardent and true ‘album-making’ is a fading art form. In nine songs, it somehow takes a listener backwards & forwards at once, reckoning with intrinsic anxieties while conceptualising a fantastical and vibrant happening, soothing in its familiar, occasionally childlike tone.’
Major Murphy’s new album, Access, is out on Winspear Records on the 2nd April.
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