The short history of reality pop programmes is littered with the carcasses of mutilated careers, but George Murphy is one of the few to suggest there might be life after Linda.
He’s also been touted in some quarters as a modern-day Luke Kelly. Now that’s really dreaming a dream. In fact, four of the songs on this album have already been recorded by Kelly (‘Joe Hill’, ‘Dirty Old Town’, ‘Raglan Road’ and ‘Scorn Not His Simplicity’) and none of Murphy’s ill-judged attempts come within cloning distance of the great legend. Nor is he helped by anaemic production and pedestrian arrangements that are often at total variance with his committed, vocal style.
It’s when Murphy applies himself to more contemporary work that he really achieves lift off. Few could tackle Dylan’s ‘To Make You Feel My Love’ and ‘Blind Willie McTell’ and survive the comparison, yet Murphy’s resonant voice brings an epic sweep to both. Similarly, his take on John Spillane’s stirring ‘The Land You Love The Best’ is proving that daytime radio listeners do not, as we’ve lead to believe, flee the house in panic when they encounter something beyond the obvious. Spillane’s ‘The Moon Going Home’ is equally compelling, and even Lennon’s ‘Working Class Hero’ is delivered complete with swearwords and the kind of pathos we only expect from a class act like Nick Cave.
Murphy has only written one of the songs, ‘Jack’, a poignant number about suicide. It benefits from a more restrained vocal approach and suggests that more genuine Murphy and less ersatz Kelly would have been preferable. Let’s hope there’s a next time.