Lupen Crook and the Murderbirds - The Lost Belongings EP

  by Jamie Rowland

published: 13 / 8 / 2009

Label: Beast Reality
Format: CDS

intro

Fabulous latest EP from Chatham-based songwriter Lupen Crook which finds him merging gothic-folk feeling of his early recordings with an increased pop sensibility

Lupen Crook first appeared around four or five years ago as a solo artist, with his first EP 'Petals Fresh From Roadkill' featuring 7 tracks with Lupen Crook singing and playing acoustic guitar, unaccompanied. Since then, even after recordings began being credited to Lupen Crook and the Murderbirds, the songs featured sounded like a solo artist being backed by a band – there seemed to be a slight distance between the songs’ author and his backing musicians. 'The Lost Belongings EP' is different, in that it sounds like the band really know the songs inside and out; the tracks sound like they were written by a band as opposed to one man who performs them with a backing group. The songs themselves vary slightly in tone. While there is still much of the gothic-folk feeling of earlier releases, some of the tracks, such as ‘Little Treasure’, carry a Billy Bragg-ish influence. Crook himself also seems more confident with his voice, and as such some of his more alienating vocal inflections are gone. The result is that 'The Lost Belongings' keeps all the best elements of past Murderbirds records, while at the same time taking on a bit more of a pop sensibility - which will hopefully open them up to a wider audience. Oh, and the packaging for this EP is bloody lovely, too.

Track Listing:-