Murder Ford Monument – Self Titled
Right from the start, the album explodes into existence with “The King is Dead”. Whining electric guitars and crashing drums stop and start until lead singer Jesse LeGallais starts to sing; his deep voice immediately bringing to mind The National’s Matt Berninger. Perhaps for some, LeGallais’ deadpan delivery might be a little off putting at first, but as the album goes on it becomes apparent that his vocal style compliments the music perfectly, and I really wouldn’t want it any other way.
On a musical level, the majority of the album’s instrumentation is provided by guitars, bass and drums, with a spattering of other instruments here and there. While a lot of the time the guitars are loud and screeching, on “Bones”, one of the album’s slower numbers, and also one of the most emotional, the guys add some slide guitar to the mix, which leads to lovely results. It’s hard to tell when the song ends and the next song, “The Hills Were on Fire” begins, but the welcome sound of organ, piano and even trumpet tell us that a new song is here, and it’s another heart-wrencher. The dramatic, halting piano provide for that. “No Highway” is the album’s only instrumental piece, led by a solitary trumpet, which is accompanied by guitar, bass and marching band style percussion. This also just so happens to be one of the saddest songs on the album. The song to accompany a lonely soldier marching off to war perhaps. A beautiful piece in any respect.
Murder Ford Monument’s debut LP is as good a debut as you could expect to hear. Even though the album is only nine songs long, it doesn’t feel too short. On the contrary, listening to this album from start to finish is quite an adventure. The album ends with “Black Moon Lake” which if you’d like one song to sum up the rest of the album, this is the one. Emotion driven vocals, almost tragic sounding instrumentation which takes us out of the album on a sea of swirling guitars. – Greg Lozoff
Don’t miss Murder Ford Monument live this Friday, April 30th at Green Room. Montreal’s Nightwood and Distant Shores will be opening. Tickets are $5.00.
