Building concepts

Music | July 20th, 2016

By Payton Berger

Go Murphy’s newest album “Buildings” opens up with a rolling start. The guitars create a droning melody of distortion as the drums and bass march the song along. It’s been quite a wait for Go Murphy fans. Their last full length album “A is A” was released in 2013. Luckily fans will have something to be excited about. Go Murphy’s newest release “Buildings” came out May 31st and give rockers something to enjoy.

The sweeping and rolling guitar riffs of “Buildings” place it squarely in the realm of alternative hard rock. As one goes deeper into the album, a number of the songs show some heavy indie leanings.

The tracks on the album demonstrate a thickening and heavier-sounding tone. “Lay Down,” and “Kingswood” have some nice heavy breakdown sections that highlight the band’s instrumental and rhythmic ability. “However You Are” and “For A Moment In Time” are filled with ambiguous lyrics that lean way into some heavy indie rock.

There are a lot of ambiguous lyrics within “Buildings.” Lead singer Marcus Rondestvedt leaves a lot open to interpretation. There doesn’t seem to be any sort of structured narrative on any track, unless that was intentional. If the ambiguity was intentional, then Go Murphy did a good job of creating lyrics with strange and incomplete references that a listener might not know how to connect to.

There are some lines that really shine, though. In “Passerby,” Marcus sings, “keeping those we love away from those who love to hate,” but then later makes a seemingly unconnected turn into, “I got someone’s money.”

“On And On” does seem to have some lyrics that reference the forward and backward feeling of time, while also doing a bit of relationship reflection. “On And On” finishes with the repetition of the line “What was my life?” There are some other times in the album where the last phrases are repeated until the end. Repetition can be useful for songwriters to emphasize a poignant line, but the use in multiple spots in “Buildings” just seems to be a space filler.

The album does shine on its title track. The song “Buildings” has an uplifting chord progression that leads to a tight and airy breakdown that brings it back for a heavy finish.

Go Murphy’s newest album, “Buildings,” has given listeners a rocking record with distortion, breakdowns, and a nice bit of indie airiness to balance it all out. Plus, the album artwork is a fantastic depiction of Downtown Fargo that was designed by Go Murphy’s bassist Ryan Dahl.

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