Singing Saw is one of those albums that immediately captures your interest, but offers enough depth and hidden intricacies to make every subsequent listen just as rewarding.
Superb third album ... The album is beautifully structured like this, with narrative threads and recurring thoughts picked up and passed from song to song. It's also self-referential but, crucially, never arch.
For all the tragedy that’s to be found within Singing Saw, it is a warm, welcoming album, every second of it informed by a knowledge of the transience of all things.
Singing Saw is his strongest album because it shows a process of refinement, and because Morby’s songwriting has become less referential and more grounded. The basic ingredients haven’t changed, but Morby is figuring out how to retain and amplify his strongest points—his weary and wise voice, his understanding of how the musical pieces fit together—and leave everything else behind.
Morby’s third album Singing Saw is a collection of polished songs — even if much of its latter half blurs together.
Morby has delivered largely run-of-the-mill roots rock, but Singing Saw is more measured.
From the warm analogue production feel to the blemished vocal takes, ‘Singing Saw’ sounds timeless, with flashes of Dylan, cult Searching For Sugar Man star Rodriguez, and Bill Fay throughout.
An album that finds him light-years beyond his previous release, revealing him to be one of today's most promising singer-songwriters.
Singing Saw will be remembered as a breakthrough moment from an artist who’s now more comfortable articulating his own visual language.
Using twilight walks into the mountains as inspiration and the shabby house he shares with his girlfriend, his guitars and an old piano as his base, Morby cooked up a glorious third album.
The match of songs and sounds on Singing Saw delivers on all the promise of his earlier records, while firmly establishing Morby as one of the best singer/songwriters going.
Singing Saw is the sound of affirmation, of both hard-earned talent and childlike imagination. As a result, Morby has discovered a sound which is organic without ever quoting, rocking without ever rolling at the same time, transcending while barely leaving the ground.
Morby has crafted a more diverse and atmospheric set of contexts, environments that mostly offer that voice the space to be centre stage, but which offer musical contributions that compensate for its emphasis on clarity and phrasing over melody.
As a whole, Singing Saw is Morby’s best work. He’s becoming one of the most memorable singer songwriters to emerge from the States in years.
I have seen Kevin Morby live twice now and can say I think he does sound better live than on record, however, this album is still great and unique. It sounds like it is coming from a different planet at times, but still sounds so familiar, but not done before. 'I Have Been to the Mountain' is such a great song and a stand-out for me.
Wow, this record inspired me so much. Been rly getting into alt-country lately.
Any suggestions?
Kevin Morby's Singing Saw is a incredibly melancholic and calming experience, almost putting me in a trance of sorts.
Fav Tracks: Singing Saw, Dorothy, Ferris Wheel, Destroyer, Black Flowers, Water
Least Fav Track: I Have Been to the Mountain
1 | Cut Me Down 3:32 | 89 |
2 | I Have Been to the Mountain 3:14 | 88 |
3 | Singing Saw 7:15 | 87 |
4 | Drunk and on a Star 4:18 | 65 |
5 | Dorothy 5:08 | 80 |
6 | Ferris Wheel 3:05 | 55 |
7 | Destroyer 4:26 | 75 |
8 | Black Flowers 5:47 | 82 |
9 | Water 6:40 | 60 |
#13 | / | Sputnikmusic |
#20 | / | Gigwise |
#23 | / | MOJO |
#28 | / | Rough Trade |
#32 | / | BrooklynVegan |
#34 | / | Pitchfork |
#41 | / | Q Magazine |
#44 | / | The Skinny |
#44 | / | Under the Radar |
#49 | / | Earbuddy |