3.5/5: Alexi Murdoch’s highly-anticipated debut album Time Without Consequence is a promising, but flawed, first effort from an exciting young songwriter.
You may not know Alexi Murdoch's name, but if you spend any of your time around teenagers, you have probably heard his music.
His first full-length album, Time Without Consequence (Zero Summer Records) has emerged as one of the summer's most anticipated releases, in no small part due to the appearance of his song "Orange Sky" on two popular compilations. First came the soundtrack to Zach Braff's indie flick Garden State, and then The O.C.: Mix 1 of music featured on the popular 90210-the-next-generation, West-Coast melodrama of the same name.
Murdoch's appeal for these types of collections is easily understandable. His voice is moody, sensitive and immediately recognizable. Although he transplanted his life to Los Angeles in the late 1990s, the quaint international lilt of a childhood spent in London, Scotland and Greece shines through on the album's gentler tracks.
There are no overpowering, American-Idol finale notes here. When he sings lines like "So today I wrote a song for you," on "Song for You," the words sound like an Oxford-educated version of Lou Reed making a suggestion rather than chiseling a melody out of the song's heavy cello accompaniment.
The album's stripped-down tracks stand out for their simplicity and self-confidence. When Murdoch limits his arrangements, he can create truly mesmerizing songs. "All of My Days" and "Orange Sky" come across as tormented lullabies that remain strangely hum-able as well.
However, a thin line exists between the hypnotic and the monotonous. If the album suffers from a significant fault, it is that Murdoch's melancholy can, at times, be rather obtuse.
Songs like "Home" and "12" churn on for far too long as he moans, wails, and chants (including an impromptu ending of "Row, Row, Row, Your Boat" on the former cut) over a slightly cacophonous collection of electronic effects. Ultimately, the emotional spillage of these tracks feel out of place and subpar.
Overall, Time Without Consequence is a deeply-felt, richly-arranged debut effort on which the strengths far outnumber the weaknesses. More importantly, though, it reveals a young songwriter with much more to say.
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