Music Review: Murder By Death, Big Dark Love

By Melissa Bratcher

With a band name like Murder By Death, I wasn’t surprised by the heaviness of their latest, Big Dark Love. It’s a heavy record lyrically, touching on depression and chronic illness, obsession, and isolation. It inhabits a dream-like space, but the kind of dream that borders on a nightmare—the kind of dream where things are just a bit wrong, but you can’t put your finger on why exactly. It’s the kind of dream where you always end up alone, in an unfamiliar, sinister place, with wolves baying. Big Dark Love is unsettling in that subtle way, and quite effective.

The thing that sets Murder By Death’s music firmly on a surprisingly Southern Gothic path (aside from their thinky, dark lyrics) is cellist Sarah Balliet’s melodies. The opening track, “I Shot An Arrow,” has a Bowie-meets-Arcade-Fire feeling to it; dreamy but propulsive, with the plaintive refrain of “Get me out of here.” The cello ties the song together, like a really great rug. The stutter-step of Dagan Thogerson’s drums drive “Strange Eyes,” and Adam Turla’s guitar swells dangerously, but it is Balliet’s off-kilter cello that colors the song. The result is a big sound that’s just a bit askew.

There are pairs of songs that feel like companion pieces. The moody title track pairs well with the following track, “Dream In Red.” Both are edgy, and more than a little creepy. “Big Dark Love” is evocative and dramatic, making the listener feel the claustrophobia and fear from being stalked. It builds furiously in intensity until it’s nearly unbearable. “Send Me Home” and “Last Thing” could also be heard as companion songs. The incredibly sad “Send Me Home” deals with crushing depression (“every morning, I’m in pain”) with elegiac cello and David Fountain’s lonesome trumpet, and if you didn’t listen to the words, it could be a spirited sing-along. The same road is tread on “Last Thing,” which cloaks its crushingly sad lyrics in jaunty banjo, driving rhythms, and more sing-along choruses.

“Solitary One” will hit home with lots of listeners. A secret biography of. . . loads of people (“You’ve got your books/you’ve got your shows/but who you are/no one knows”), “Solitary One” cuts right to the bone lyrically. Cello and horns pair gorgeously and bring lots of low end sounds. “Hunted,” with nervous-making cello slashes and massive drums, is alive with the feeling of impending doom and darkness closing in.

There’s a Nick-Cave-meets-The-Velvet-Underground, via Flannery O’Connor feeling to Murder By Death. Big Dark Love lives up to its title. It’s a deep, sometimes startlingly beautiful record.

Big Dark Love was released on February 3 by Bloodshot Records.

Tour Dates:
6-Feb, Santa Cruz, CA, The Catalyst Atrium
7-Feb, Los Angeles, CA, The Roxy
8-Feb, Santa Ana, CA, The Constellation Room
9-Feb, Phoenix, AZ, Crescent Ballroom
10-Feb, Albuquerque, NM, Launchpad
12-Feb, Dallas, TX, Club Dada
13-Feb, Austin, TX, Red 7
14-Feb, Houston, TX, Fitzgerald’s Downstairs
15-Feb, Memphis, TN, Hi-Tone Café
24-Feb, Pittsburgh, PA, Mr Smalls
25-Feb, Cleveland, OH, Grog Shop
27-Feb, Boston, MA, Paradise Rock Club
28-Feb, New York, NY, Bowery Ballroom
1-Mar, Brooklyn, NY, Music Hall of Williamsburg
4-Mar, Hamden, CT, The Ballroom at The Outer Space
5-Mar, Charlottesville, VA, The Southern
6-Mar, Philadelphia, PA, Union Transfer
7-Mar, Washington, DC, Black Cat
8-Mar, Raleigh, NC, Kings Barcade
10-Mar, Tampa, FL, The Orpheum
11-Mar, Orlando, FL, The Social
12-Mar, Atlanta, GA, Terminal West
13-Mar, Nashville, TN, Mercy Lounge
14-Mar, Bloomington, IN, The Bluebird
28-May, St Paul, MN, Turf Club
29-May, Milwaukee, WI, Turner Hall Ballroom
31-May, Chicago, IL, Subterranean