- Night Music is the debut album from Brisbane singer-songwriter, Jordan Merrick. A stalwart of the Brisbane music scene, Merrick also fronts the blues band Fugitive & The Vagabond. The young troubadour is an old soul with arcane influences that he reinvigorates to create music that is somehow simultaneously archaic and innovative. After a plethora of shorter releases, Merrick asserts himself an artist to watch with his first full length album, Night Music.
The album begins with an introduction in more ways than one, with a sparse opener titled exactly that. It presents a narrator who sets the scene with the opening line, “Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to my life”. Things begin in earnest with second track Dangerously Sincere which builds up incrementally from a lone bass line to a cacophony of bleating organs and an enfilade of banging drums. Followed by the upbeat Low Country, there’s a change of pace with folky fourth track, Record Time. Centred around finger-picked guitar, the song is galvanised by the lilting vocals of fellow singer-songwriter Amela. While there is myriad variation on the album, it has an underlying homogeneity due to the pervasive influence of roots music. However, these contrasts are laden throughout the album with songs like Dark Night conveying a vaudevillian influence and songs like A European Love Song sounding reminiscent of early Leonard Cohen.
Closing with the bombastic blues number, I Don’t Belong, Merrick saves the most visceral music for the end. Singing with a rough growl, Merrick conjures legendary artists like, Nick Cave and Tom Waits on this hard-hitting conclusion to the album.
A budding artist, Merrick is unequivocally talented and his debut album is the proof. Night Music is a brilliant debut from start to finish from an artist with songwriting acumen beyond his years.
- Jon Cloumassis.