Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Peter Murphy

The ever-gaunt Peter Murphy was once the frontman for Bauhaus, one of the truly monolithic Goth-rock outfits that ruled the musical wasteland of the early 1980s. Since the cult band went their separate ways in 1983, Murphy has embarked on a sporadically successful solo career, which earned a modicum of critical acclaim and a modest presence on the contemporary charts; he also caught some flak for trying too hard to be an overly melodramatic, second-rate David Bowie (admittedly, his most obvious musical role model).

Notwithstanding any unfair, hostile criticism that might have been levelled at Murphy, you can find some positively inventive gems when his solo output is taken into serious consideration. Here are three stellar examples of Murphy's artistry, a trio of tracks that display differing aspects of Murphy's musicianship.

First up is the minor modern-rock hit "Cuts You Up", a slightly leftfield but wholly attractive and elegant number that conforms to the basic tenets of an archetypal pop song (verse-chorus-verse).



Next is Murphy's raucously sly cover of Pere Ubu's difficult art-rock sculpture "Final Solution".



And finally, Murphy shows off his unique crooning skills in the haunting, beautifully spectral medieval ballad "A Strange Kind of Love", complemented by a suitably atmospheric video.

1 Comments:

Blogger Eeleen Lee said...

Hi, have you seen 'The Hunger'? With David Bowie and Catherine Deneuve, Peter Murphy can be seen during the opening credits

4:11 PM  

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