Although Chris Murphy, the man behind the Seven Crows moniker, has been dropping singles for many months as a build-up to this album, hearing Powers of Observation in its entirety gives us context and a bigger picture. There is an art to deciding on the track sequence of an album, and it is perhaps even more crucial to get it right when you are dealing with not only instrumental tracks but also ones of such a fleeting and ambient nature. Without words to take you by the hand, mood and motion, feeling and flow, is everything.
If rock and roll has “post-rock” with which to explore its more adventurous edges and push boundaries, then this is “post-folk”, a way of untethering the genre from its structures and traditions, the sound of an artist truly exploring where the muse and indeed the music might lead.
Opener “Amanda on the Bed” gently drifts the album into our consciousness, long, lush violin strokes layered up to create a sort of opaque sonic weight, and also a reminder that it is only through the title that we gain insight into the artist’s thoughts. But that is fine, and if the music suggests something else to you, dear reader, something more personal, then even better. One song might spark a thousand different stories or memories for a thousand different people.
“Talk Story” leans slightly toward the more structured sound that defines the music Murphy makes under his own name, pizzicato strings providing the beat, sounds soar and swoon, looking to the musical traditions of his own part-Irish roots. “Woke Up Singing,” even more so, you listen to this, and you are transported: a quiet rural bar, the late afternoon sun streaming in through the window, a lone player entertaining a hushed crowd.
Then, at the other extreme, are the more cinematic flows of “The Wind & the Water,” a song that paints the pictures suggested by the title, built out of the same lightness and fluidity, shimmer and serenity. If there is a windswept, keening, Celtic vibe at the heart of much of the music found here, “1958 Hong Kong” uses those plucked strings to capture more oriental moods and deliver more exotic sonic spice.
And if “Mortal Moon” isn’t the most heart-achingly gorgeous piece of music you have heard in years, then perhaps music isn’t for you.
Given that Murphy’s sonic building blocks come from a very limited pool – live looped violins and electronic manipulation – his ability not only to make such incredible music but deliver fourteen songs that each stand alone, separate and unique, each with their own purpose, poise and personality, is why he is one of the most fascinating and fantastic musicians doing the rounds today.
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