SINGLE REVIEW: MORGANWAY - MACHINE
- CHRIS FARLIE
- 22 hours ago
- 3 min read
For all of the advances that technology has brought us, music is one area that has suffered most. Most consumers prefer ease of delivery rather quality of sound hence the rise of the online platforms. Never has so much music been available yet tastes if ever seem to be getting narrower - fuelled by algorithms that feed you something exactly the same as the last thing you listened to, or draws you towards more sponsored content. The most insidious thing of all is the belief that music is free and is therefore perceived to have no value.
All of which brings us to "Machine" the new single from Morganway which for reasons that will become apparent is not available to be heard on Spotify.
Played out from Festival stages across the summer and pre Christmas at their hometown headline show at The Junction, it is something of a transitional single one assumes between Morganway Phase 2 and the current incarnation playing this weekend in New Orleans and due to hit the London stage next week.
It is something a little different from Morganway, the opening has an almost spiritual feel with all of their voices coming together in a choir led by Reverend SJ. it then shuffles off into a more rootsy direction than normal, with the sound of Ed's drumming and Kieran's guitar, laying the groundwork for SJ to lay her most powerful and inventive vocals over.
"Life on the road, or life on the run
We’re flying broke, but we’re not done, no.
Raise me up then shoot me down
Tryna’ build something up from the ground
Know this earth is full of sound
We’re the roots together bound"
It is the predicament of the independent artist, where making music is increasingly becoming a vocation rather a career, and nothing is more frustrating one imagines than the online streamers. Instead of finishing each year with some fancy analytics telling how many streams each artist has had, they could easily add an extra field to show how much money they have paid out to the artists for those streams.
"Yeah we give to the machine but we don’t get it back"
That line heralds the arrival of Nicole Terry's fiddle which only amplifies that country vibe more.
The next verse combines the harsh realities of life with dream that something that might change things is around the corner.
"Feeling all your vibrations
But I want more from our creation, yeah
Still burnt out from working late
Counting pennies for the streams they take
Yeah it’s rigged, it’s fake, it’s the cards we must play
So we wait for a break to believe in better days"
If there is a bright new tomorrow #TEAMw21 can't think of a band more deserving than Morganway, that "World Stopped Running" was not being sung across the nation on its release remains one of the great mysteries of the world. So until the day comes when Kieran can endlessly fill his house with guitars much to SJ's chagrin, and Nicole can swim lengths in her fiddle shaped swimming pool, it is back to the relentless slog, to climb the ladder to success.
"Gotta keep holding on for just another day
Make it loud, walk it proud, right to the stage"
Morganway play the TALENTBANQ 8th Birthday Party in London on 28th January
Machine can be purchased via Bandcamp on the link below with 10% of every download going to Music Venue Trust, a machine in the music industry that does give back.
