Alexi Murdoch sounds a lot like Nick Drake. He's got the same dusky, romantic voice, the same delicately picked guitar, the same elegantly subtle backing music. Hell, he's even got a song title featuring a color (Orange) and a celestial item (Sky), much like Drake's "Pink Moon."
So is the 33-year-old singer-songwriter merely some hackneyed, nostalgia-humping copycat? Heck, no! Firstly, Murdoch was born in London and raised in suburban Greece and rural Scotland. With that kind of pedigree, you'd be hard pressed not to sing like Drake. Days spent wandering the moors or mooning over your dropped souvlaki -- that's the stuff of true melancholia.
Eventually, Murdoch packed up and headed to Duke University, where he studied philosophy for a spell. When he got the wandering bug again, he dropped out and followed a girlfriend to the City of Angels. In 2002, he slipped a copy of his Four Songs EP to influential KCRW DJ Nic Harcourt, who ended up playing the heck out of it. Soon, the gorgeously mournful "Orange Sky" was being played on The O.C., Dawson's Creek, and Prison Break (what?), and the short disc was selling a miraculous 50,000 copies. The major label suits came a-calling next, but Murdoch decided to release his full-length debut, Time Without Consequences, on his own label, Zero Summer. "There was no way anyone would let me make the record I wanted to make," he told Rolling Stone, which picked him for their list of 10 Artists to Watch in 2006.
Time Without Consequences features "Orange Sky" and a whole bunch of songs that will do nothing to dispel the Drake comparisons. On a recent performance of "All of My Days" on Last Call with Carson Daly, Murdoch even twisted his pronunciation to make it sound more Scottish and Drake-y. But while David Lowery of Cracker fame might disagree, (remember the lyrics to "Low"), the world does need more folksingers, especially when they can sing so beautifully they make statues weep. And just in case you think he's a one-trick pony, he includes a tune on Time called "12," in which he expands his earnest folk music into experimental territory, with looped samples, meditative Sufi-like vocals, prettily meandering guitar solos, and a rumbling rhythm section. Hearing the song, it makes perfect sense that Murdoch would be currently touring with LA nu-gazers Midnight Movies. Stick that in your Volkswagen and drive. . - CARVER SIMPSON
