Music Review: Peter Murphy - Lion

Today's Music Review will be of Peter Murphy's tenth album (ninth studio), 2014's Lion.

Cover art for Lion

If there is one thing to expect about the "Godfather of Goth," it is to expect the unexpected. Over more recent years, Peter Murphy's career has gone places few would expect - starting perhaps with a turn of the century reinvention that spurred 2002's unique masterpiece, Dust, followed by 2004's return to pop rock form that Murphy had previously built his career on, Unshattered, and ending most recently with 2011's rock triumph full of attitude and energy, Ninth.

Lion, produced by Youth (Killing Joke), is everything you would expect from Murphy at this point and still so much more than you could have guessed. With most of the tracks originally written and recorded on the spot in the studio and in the span of only a handful of days, the album flourishes with an immediacy that makes Ninth feel tame in comparison. Richly sprinkled along the slew of single-worthy anthemic songs are compassionate, emotional ballads that still show off Murphy's rich vocal prowess and beautiful lyrics.

The album opens with the first single, "Hang Up," a synth-heavy song laced with screaming vocals that have been atypical of Murphy's career so far. Afterwards, the album winds into the electro-dance song "I Am My Own Name," which may be Murphy's response to much of the criticism he received in 2013 for endeavoring to do a full Bauhaus tour around the world without the other three original members of the band.

Amid the instantly dance-able songs come slower, passionate pieces that are a bit more reminiscent of Murphy's earlier works, including "Compression," "The Rose," and the soaring "Loctaine." Perhaps a nod back to Murphy's roots in the 80s music scene, songs like "Holy Clown" and "Low Tar Stars" carry the feeling of an 80s new wave song created for the dispossessed (the latter in particular sounding like the dark version of Michael Sembello's 1983 hit song "Maniac").

Lion rounds out with other notable songs "I'm On Your Side" and "The Ghost of Shokan Lake." "Eliza" is a slight change of pace for Murphy, not focusing so much on forms of love, introspection, and religious ideologies, but instead on the idea of leaving self-blame behind, being yourself, and celebrating life.

Murphy's tenth album ends with the title track "Lion," which has a lofty, atmospheric background music to fill in around Murphy's lush, deep vocals, creating a song that alludes to some of the many qualities of an actual lion - powerful, majestic, and encompassing. While not a fast, hard hitting song to round out the album in a fashion of how it started, "Lion" leaves the listener with a feeling of completing a musical journey guided by Murphy through introspection, religion, history, and even a glimpse into the future.

Lion is the rock-dominated album many would expect of him following Ninth. Given his desire on the previous album to prove a point of existence and importance, Ninth was in some regards the album Bauhaus never made, serving to assert Murphy's place as a solo musician and a rock star. Lion is the vastly more experimental follow-up to Ninth now that the audience and self-imposed (to some extent, at least) expectations of the former Bauhaus-frontman are squashed. What comes next only Murphy knows, but Lion may well be one of the best works he has done to date, combining much of what he was originally loved for during the Bauhaus years, the complex lyric writing that has persisted throughout his solo career, and an ingenious musical progression that is neither forced nor completely alien to long time fans. This album will certainly be on repeat for a long time to come.

Peter Murphy will be joined by current band members Emilio "Zef Noise" China (bass guitar, violin), Andee Blacksugar (guitar), and Nick Lucero (drums) for a tour of North America to support Lion that begins June 9, 2014 in New York. Peter Murphy visits Austin at The Belmont on July 29th with local favorites My Jerusalem providing opening support once again (they opened for him on last year's Mr. Moonlight Tour).