MORBY,KEVIN HARLEM RIVER

Personnel: Kevin Morby (vocals, guitar); Justin Sullivan (drums, percussion).Recording information: Los Angeles, CA (02/2013-03/2013).Woods bassist and Babies singer Kevin Morby is in a reflective mood on his solo debut, Harlem River. Meandering like the eight-mile-long river of its namesake, the album is a brief journey through the New York that Morby called home for the five years prior to its recording. Now relocated to sunny California, the Kansas City-born Morby made it his first act of business to send a fond farewell to the city that has begun so many careers and inspired so many songs. Gone is the lo-fi experimentalism of Brooklyn's Woods and the uptempo city punk of the Babies. Instead, Morby employs a decidedly vintage aesthetic more in keeping with the ramshackle, folky bustle of Dylan's Blonde on Blonde or early Leonard Cohen records. Long, wistfully downcast poems about city life play out over a bed of warm, jangling guitars and chirping organ. Harlem River is a moody affa