peter murphy - ninth

Very happy to report that Peter Murphy’s unimaginatively titled ninth album Ninth is really tremendous.

I don’t have the actual CD yet but rather weirdly amazon.com (the US one) have the whole album streamed, so I've captured a decent enough copy of the album to keep me going until the real thing drops through my letterbox.

I’ve known quite a few of these songs for nearly two years now, and right from when they were first performed back in May 2009 it was clear that the Murph would have a storming album on his hands.

This is PM’s most immediate album since 1995’s Cascade, and rivals that album and Deep in the catchy top tunes stakes. PM doesn’t sound like someone in his mid 50s, he’s energized and pumped up, the vocals are strong and clear and as always he commands your attention with That Voice. The lyrics are the usual faintly silly Murph nonsense. For example, what exactly is a Velocity Bird? But he makes the words sound so exotic and fully enjoyable. Thumbs up from me for another mention of Djinn and absolutely full marks for the use of the word ‘vespertilian’ (I had no idea what it meant and just looked it up - it means, pertaining to, or resembling a bat! Brilliant and so appropriate that I can't believe that Peter Murphy hasn't used this batlike word before).

The tunes are superb, cracking melodies and supremely catchy choruses. Many of the choruses consist solely of the song’s title. For example the chorus in “I Spit Roses” is simply that line repeated, as is the chorus of “The Prince & Old Lady Shade” and others. Makes it easy to sing along I guess.

There are a number of tracks that PM hasn’t played live yet and these tend to be the quieter numbers – “Never Fall Out” is a lovely ballad and “Slowdown” is a growling edgy and rather jumpy piece. The closing piano led “Crème De La Crème” has faint echoes of “My Last Two Weeks” at the start but builds dramatically – this tune has been around since 2002 actually and was played live on the Dust tour in a much more funky arrangement but never since.

David Baron's production on this record is great (and I'm looking forward to his production of Lettie's forthcoming record too) – lots of little touches like the synth strings and the hugely meaty guitar riff on “The Prince…”, the amusingly U2ish guitar in the background on “Seesaw Sway” (which is such a commercial track, but in a good way), bits of synth underpinning many tracks, the layers of guitarwork, the backing vocals, the massive and hugely satisfying CRUNCH of the guitars on "Uneven and Brittle", the way a number of tracks have marvelously sudden endings, you get the picture – I like this record. A Lot.

Anyway, this is certainly one of PM’s best albums and deserves to be a big hit. Because PM doesn’t get onto X Factor, it won’t be a hit of course, and that’s a terrible shame, but I guess Peter is used to that by now.