It’s isn’t like Kevin Morby has been silent since his 2013 debut, Harlem River. It’s more that the moody title-track off that album was so perfectly suited for such specific situations that it colored everything for anybody who wasn’t paying much attention to what Morby had done before or what he did after. It’d be fair to assume the guy would exclusively craft songs perfect for winding down a long day of drinking outside on a pleasant June afternoon-turned-evening — if you hadn’t listened to his stuff with the band Woods or the three LPs that came out after Harlem River (Also, those Jason Molina covers he did with Waxahatchee were pretty breathtaking.)
So to those of you who maybe missed out on all that, “OMG Rock n Roll,” which sounds like Morby trying to do his best Velvet Underground “Sister Ray” impression, minus all the heroin and murder, might come as a bit of a surprise. Which is fair. It is sort of out there even for Morby, and it feels like a different, welcomed direction.
The video is also trippy. But trippy in a good way, man. (Please imagine me saying that in the Big Lebowski voice.)
Is this the direction his next album, Oh My God, will go in? Find out on April 26 when he releases it on Dead Oceans.
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