Secret Meeting score: 76
by Philip Moss
Kevin Morby is certainly prolific. In just six years, Oh My God, is the Texan’s fifth long player. Billed as his ‘weird non-religious religious record’, it marks a move away from the guitar driven folk rock he’s become known for.
Despite the opener clanking in with sporadic piano, Oh My God feels a very considered record. From the moment Morby’s excellent voice enters on the title track, and the first of a number of harmonised choir parts swell alongside Talk Talk-evoking saxophones, there’s clearly a change in the air. No Halo also sees the thirty-one year-old embracing percussion – the song is almost entirely hinged on a handclap loop – before the harmonised voices subtly re-emerge towards its conclusion. While on Nothing Sacred / All Things While, which is arguably being the best song of his career to date, the choir this time takes a more prominent role, dominating the song’s palette.
The spacious feel, however, is not by chance. Producer, Sam Cohen, felt the project was heading towards Singing Saw mk. 2 and suggested the compositions be stripped back. This suited the thematic imagery Morby had in mind: his position as an outsider in regards to the way human beings interact with religion – which stubbornly runs throughout. This reflective nature, highlighted on Seven Devils, shows his maturing as a songwriter – ‘Why did you come into my life? What was I s’posed to learn from all of this?’ – before it falls into a deeply emotive, rip roaring guitar solo courtesy of Meg Duffy. And despite its throwaway title, the contemplative Piss River is covered in twinkling harps, and sees the ‘Oh my god!’ motif return once more as the religious existentialism continues- ‘I tried to pray, but I didn’t know what to say. I just mumbled some name, said I hope they’re ok, then Amen… if I’m so lucky, I’ll die when I’m only… I pray that no devil gets inside my brain.’
At 14 songs, Oh My God would benefit from some careful editing – the first half of OMG Rock n Roll harks back almost too overtly to the only blot on his copybook to date: 2017’s City Music, and Savannah’s rhyming couplets feel very childlike. Plus in all its seriousness, the record lacks a little charm as the persistent thematic references do start to wane heavy. But Oh My God is nothing if not ambitious, and it is definitely Kevin Morby’s grandest, most bold statement. For that he must be applauded.
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