There are a couple moments where Gentle Sinners go where you think - or maybe hope - they might. "Killing This Time" is a sweeping and synthy dancefloor thumper, while "Don't Say Goodnight" weaves layers of Graham's vocals with delicate strings and glitchy electronic flourishes.
Graham almost sounds like a different person, often working in the upper registers of his voice. These Actions Cannot Be Undone is grand, striking sophistipop, closer to Wild Beasts or The Associates than the widescreen anthemic indie rock that might come to mind with this pair. Gentle Sinners sound like no other music either have made before.
"If we hadn't done it before, we should definitely do it now." Mission accomplished, above and beyond those intentions. "I really wanted to try something I'd never done before, which is make music for other people to sing to, and that sort of became a theme of the album," Moffat says. Moffatt in turn suggested they work together on something, and said he actually had some music he'd been working on he thought would be perfect. A long admirer of Moffat's work in and out of Arab Strap, Graham wanted his advice on working on a solo project. In 2021, Graham was moving out of the city he'd called home for most of his life and relocating to Northeast Scotland, and met up with Moffat before leaving town. Gentle Sinners - These Actions Cannot Be Undone (Rock Action)Īrab Strap's Aidan Moffat and The Twilight Sad's James Graham join forces to make an album unlike any either have made beforeĪidan Moffat and James Graham have known each other for years, traveling in similar circles of Glasgow's indie rock scene as frontmen for Arab Strap and The Twilight Sad, respectively. Pick up This is a Photograph on Gold Nugget vinyl. "No they just dont make em like that no more," Kevin sings, but clearly sometimes they do.
It's also the best kind of "concept" record, where all the songs work on their own but take on more meaning when viewed as a whole, and he manages to say his peace in a tight 45 minutes. Kevin wraps it all up with "Goodbye to the Good Times," that really ties the whole record together, thematically, feeling almost like a reprise of the title track but is entirely its own thing. Kevin brings swagger and heart to all of it. With Memphis as the backdrop for most of it, This is a Photograph covers a lot of thematic ground, with each song offering a different chapter, a distinct shade of the same color. He also looks at doomed romance through Jack Nicholson's character in Five Easy Pieces, asking "How do you make a bad time last?" "Five Easy Pieces" is one of the best songs on an album with no bad ones, alongside "It's Over," which features Cassandra Jenkins and wonderful string arrangements, and "Bittersweet, TN," a duet with Erin Rae whose voices sounds so good with Morby's you'd think they were kin. This is a Photograph is warm and wistful, melancholic but witty too, as he ruminates on mortality, memory and those whose time came early. As to the latter, at the center of the album are two tributes to Jeff Buckley who died in 1997 in Memphis, drowning in the Mississippi River: the mournful "Disappearing" and the dreamlike, harp-laden "A Coat of Butterflies," which weaves in other artists who met an untimely end. Kevin Morby has never lacked empathy, sincerity, or ambition but he has rarely sounded as inspired and dialed-in as with these 10 songs. "In the front lawn, with no shirt on," as he sings on This is a Photograph's title track, "Ready to take the world on, beneath the West Texas sun." It opened up a rich, creative vein and, inspired, he headed to Memphis during the height of the pandemic and took up residence at Peabody Hotel where songs came pouring out. Kevin Morby conemplates mortality on one of his best albums to dateĭeath is a frequent guest on Kevin Morby's songs but he faces it straight on with his seventh album. Shortly after a health scare with his father (he's ok), Morby found an old photo of his dad when he was around the same age as Kevin. ALBUM OF THE WEEK: Kevin Morby: This Is a Photograph (Dead Oceans)
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