In a world of dark music, where people tend to work in groups and the media rarely focus on a single personality, Peter Murphy can boast of being one of the few to have had a long career under his own name. The former frontman of Bauhaus, with all the charm of his detached theatricality and beautiful baritone voice, has carved out his own path in his solo career, showing his talent for pop melodies without denying his gothic roots. This year, the British artist brings us his eleventh album, Silver Shade, eleven years after the imposing Lion, our favourite to date.
In the midst of a diversified solo discography, Silver Shade appears to be a continuation of Lion, one of Peter Murphy's most gothic albums: most of the tracks are built around the skeleton of a deep, rough bass, accompanied by taut drums that often play on the half-tones, over which clearer electronic sounds and more gentle orchestral instruments are added as the tracks go by. But the album is less tormented than its predecessor: the tracks take the time to breathe and develop softer melodies around this skeleton, and the atmosphere is less sombre. Peter Murphy's voice, as usual, dances bewitchingly around the tracks.
And it works. There are few surprises in terms of the sounds used, and the structures of the tracks are a little repetitive with their use of higher crescendos, but Peter Murphy has the ability to seduce us with the power of his melodies and his vocals, between low murmurs and exultation. Add to this the impeccable sound, once again courtesy of Youth from Killing Joke. It's easy for us to get attached to Swoon, the harshest track on the album, a collaboration with Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, but the most interesting songs are those where the pop tinge is more assertive while retaining their shadows: such is the case with the beautiful The Artroom Wonder, which evokes the moment when Peter Murphy and Daniel Ash of Bauhaus and Love And Rockets discovered David Bowie, with Justin Chancellor of Tool on bass, the rough Soothsayer and above all the eponymous Silver Shade, intense and enchanting.
The end of the album turns out to be a little different in terms of track construction and sound, which is a good thing. We enjoy Time Waits with its oriental touch, where this dimension of the artist's career reappears. Sailmakers Charm, for its part, is a resolutely pop anthem, dominated by orchestrations and guitar, where Peter Murphy's vocals gradually become more emotional; the instrumentation makes it a little too pompous for our taste, but the melody, where the influence of ABBA can be felt, is undeniably beautiful. The track we're least keen on is the bonus track Let The Flowers Grow, a duet with Boy Georges released as a single at the end of 2024, which remains too flat despite an appreciable melancholic touch, but that doesn't really matte.
Silver Shade is a fine addition to the impressive discography of its author, who doesn't allow himself to be pigeon-holed into one genre and yet has a style that is instantly recognisable. The only thing we regret is that the record isn't built more like an album, the songs being very independent of each other and many of them structured in the same way, but the fact remains that Peter Murphy has delivered another strong, delectable work.
