Blog Post
Luke Morley - “Songs from the Blue Room”
Allister Spence • 4 July 2023
Album Review
Conversations about music will on occasions circle around the topic of how long artists have left between albums. Name such as Kate Bush and Peter Gabriel will be brought up and the almost decade long wait that they give fans between releases. Well let’s throw Luke Morley into that mix. “Songs From the Blue Room,” which is his sophomore album comes a whooping twenty-two years after his solo debut “El Gringo Loco.” Of course, I am not telling the whole truth here. He’s hardly been a hermit during those missing years. There have been seven albums from Thunder, a Danny & Luke acoustic album to accompany their two men show, and three albums with his side project The Union.
“Songs From the Blue Room” allows Luke Morley space to explore and play with musical styles that just wouldn’t find a home on a Thunder album. Early word of mouth on the album spoke of how it embraced Americana and roots music. This is true, but only to a certain level. He hasn’t turned into Steve Earle, or Tyler Bryant overnight. There are certainly elements of that genre on show here, but “Songs from the Blue Room” shows much greater variety than that early buzz suggested. What is true is the fact that the songs here back up Luke’s comment that they wouldn’t work on a Thunder album.
This is, in the truest sense of the word, a solo album. Other than drums, ably provided by Dave McCluskey, strings, beautifully played by The Bryden Quartet, a smattering of guest backing vocals, mostly beautifully delivered by Julie Maguire (presumably the one better known in rock circles as Space Elevators “The Duchess,”) and Carly Greene, and a cracking guitar solo from Tony Myers on “Cry Like Rain,” Luke Morley plays everything else and produces. Why? Practicalities. The album was made over the course of 2020 during lockdown. Other than putting on some finishing touches at Rockfield studios in December 2020 the whole of the album was recorded in Luke’s home studio, Blue Room Studios.
“I Wanna See the Light” kicks things off. It’s likely to be the track that most people are familiar with as it was the first track released into the wild. It’s a sprightly opener; upbeat, rootsy and a bit of an earworm. It’s fair to say that one thing that follows Luke Morley regardless of the musical genre is his ability to write catchy tunes that you feel like you’ve known forever after a couple of plays. The Americana vibe is quite strong here and it draws you in with that one-two punch of familiarity and catchiness. Lyrically the song finds its protagonist looking for the light and a hug and making a plea for us to do things together rather than becoming more distant from each other.
Off and running after that start and we come to the track with the title that must have had Thunder fans wetting themselves to hear Luke slam grunge and how it’s breaking out killed Thunder as they tried to get a footing in the US. Well, I am the bearer of bad tidings for those people and glad tiding for anyone who enjoys chugging guitars and their rock with a distinct slice of pop tunefulness. It turns out that not only does Luke not harbour any ill will towards Nirvana and their grunge companions, but he also actually likes it! Once people recover from that shock, they’ll find this to be another quality tune that has a hint of Sparks vocal playfulness to its backing vocals.
Things ease off a little with “Errol Flynn”, which opens with some almost Thunder like guitar chords. Here we have a song about growing old and seeing younger generation taking your place. But that’s okay, remember the good things you’ve done, take a back seat a let the youngster take the strain. There are some gently strumming guitars here, discreet drums and more of that Americana vibe. It’s all viewed through a very British lens and puts me in mind of early Elton John / Bernie Taupin works.
This isn’t new territory for Luke’s tunes as there’s a very similar feel to Thunder’s “There's Always a Loser” on the 2017 album “Rip it Up.”
We stay with that feeling of classic Seventies rock on “Damage” There’s a piano playing that reminded me of Carol Bayer Sager’s “You’re Moving Out Today,” or Leo Sayer with his early successes like “Show Must Go On”. A cracking Queen sounding guitar solo in the middle completes that sense of being transferred back to the mid-seventies.in the mid-70s.
There’s a shift across the English Channel for “Nobody Cares.” It’s delivered almost in the style of a French café drama, you can almost see the black and white hooped tops, berets and strings of garlic passing by. There’s a couple of well-known singer’s offering backing support on this one in the shape of one Ricky Warwick and Danny Bowes. I liked this one, it finishes off the first side nicely with its change of style and lyrics that seem to be taking a pop at the need of folk to explain / show everything on social media from the “nobody cares, nobody cares” refrain.
“Watch The Sun Go Down” launches side two in fine style. This is my favourite track on the album so far. It has a lovely vibe that puts you in mind of popping the roof down and driving (or perhaps that should be biking) along a (West) coastline as the sun sinks. Has a feel of the Black Crowes in one of their lighter moments (“She Talks to Angels” would be a good example). Song of the summer? Possibly. Fitting as our song of last summer was Thunder’s “Dancing in the Sunshine.” So, a little synchronicity at work here.
“Cry Like Rain” comes over as an ode to a lost friend. That would fit with the dedication on the album sleeve to a friend who was lost. We’re back in Americana territory here. I got a sense of a hint of Little Feat to the music. Tony Myers contributes the guitar solo here as I mentioned earlier. Probably the song that I felt could most easily be taken across to a Thunder album. I can easily hear Danny Bowes singing it and to seal the deal it even has a clap of thunder at the end!
I had to go a dig out my Terraplane albums when I got to “Lying to Myself.” I was convinced it was an old song of theirs. Turns out I was wrong (think I got mixed up with “Talking to Myself” from their black and white album, but hey I’m sixty, I’m allowed a senior moment or two.) What we do have is a sweet little love song. It doesn’t quite qualify for the big ballad of the album driven as it is by some nice guitar work from Mr Morley that are quite jaunty. The lie being told by the protagonist to themselves is that he’d be better off alone or with another. There’s a nice bit of harmonica playing on here too, although it nearly strays into “blowing in the wind” but works well.
The penultimate track, “I'm The One You Want,” is another love song. This time we’re listening to the view of a suitor pleading with the target of their affection to make their mind up. The surprise after that description is that the song is kind of funky. There are “yeahs,” and “woos” a plenty as Luke enters blue-eyed soul territory. It makes for a great way to ease towards the albums end. It carries a light mood despite the trauma of the protagonist, and it brings a smile to your face as the final track nears.
The album bows out with “Don't Be Long.” This is the big ballad to round things off. Luke pleads to another to find their way back to him once they are done being off on their own. The Bryden Quartet really come into their own on this track. Their sumptuous playing lending the song extra emotional heft.
Stylistically there are a few songs on Thunder’s “Dopamine” album that sound like they were written around the time these songs were. I can imagine a few mix tapes setting the songs on here with tracks from the “Please Remain Seated” album.
In closing Luke Morley has delivered a tasteful well produced album of contemporary pop/rock that leans towards Americana more than the hard/blues-rock of Thunder. There’s a wealth of good songs here and it would be great to hear them allowed to breathe in a live setting. Kudos to Luke on the production work and Nick Brine for engineering an album that sounds so good.
