专辑名称：Buried
歌手姓名：Murzik
唱片公司：Pipe Club
发行日期：2008年5月8日
专辑流派：Folk
On first listen the impression is that Murzik is a band of East European émigrés who just discovered Leonard Cohen, possibly old men who spent years playing on cold cobbled streets outside of half full coffee houses. However, their live performances or their cover of “Mean One Mr. Grinch” on their MySpace page may tell another story.
Murzik, initially, conjures obvious connections to other Eastern European influenced indie-rock acts like Beirut, Gogol Bordello or Devotchka. Only, with Buried, their sound has matured and possibly annulled such trivial reference points. Their Russian folk infused brand of acoustic pop has come into its own, severing itself from such anchors. Their sound is saturated with waltzing accordions, marching mandolins and a rhythm section so tight that it’s hard to imagine that they could sound any other way. On previous albums the Russian folk influence was worn like a badge on their sleeve, surfacing and retreating frequently, almost a statement on how to differentiate their sound from other acts; on Buried it feels natural, it feels like their sound.
The album opens with “Dreams pt. 1,” a beautiful, simply crafted waltz. Baritone vocals croon over melodic mandolin licks and punctuated accordion. A full, lush sound that meanders hypnotically through a mandolin solo at the bridge, slowly fading before it resurges accompanied by dissonant synth washes. It starts like the reception at your grandfather’s wedding and concludes like The Jesus and Mary Chain on vacation in the Balkans. “Dreams” coupled with “Kosovo,” and it’s pitch perfect trumpet accompaniment, set the tone for an album that never becomes flat. “Oh Woman” and “Hallelujah” counterpoint the more up-tempo stylized songs. They sound like a revised, finely honed take on older tracks like “‘Ol Big Jim” from earlier EPs. They mute the Russian influences to a subtle whisper, giving the album a fine sense of dynamic, oscillating from pop-infused ballads, dark dramatic odes and foot-stomping waltzes. What is often most surprising is that the atypical instrumentation of the album is not an accident or gimmick. They prove that it is well-executed and innovative song writing, repeatedly. With “Feel Like Giving Up” the accordion sound emerges from being more than a pulsating part of the rhythm section, taking hold of the melody in the sweet ballad, weaving in and out of acoustic guitars and synth washes that become more than the sum of its parts, telling more of the story than the, sometimes trite, lyrics ever do.
Where the album suffers most is in fleeting moments when they retreat from their generic interplay and attempt to foreground the vocals and play a more classic vocal based pop. But these moments are fleeting. The power of the album is its wonderful composition and strong song writing. The album has charisma. They sound as if they are finally the masters of the songs, wrestling melody to submission. Buried will garner a lot of attention; it has got mine.
01 - Dreams Pt. 1 05:10
02 - Kosovo 03:30
03 - Edge Of A Knife 04:11
04 - Oh Woman 03:16
05 - Feel Like Giving Up 03:04
06 - Hallelujah 06:17
07 - Dreams Pt. 2 04:14
