Brijean Murphy and Doug Stuart are back with a new LP, Macro. The California duo first grabbed my attention with Feelings at the end of 2020—I was privy to an early listen—and has since continued to be a significant band in the soundtrack of my life. As a working, life-long musician, Brijean Murphy has toured with Mitski, Poolside, and Toro y Moi. With the latter, she recently appeared on the album Everyone’s Getting Involved: A Tribute To Talking Heads’ Stop Making Sense in “Genius of Love.” Within Brijean, Murphy is the percussionist and the lightly sardonic vocalist. Paired with Doug Stuart, her sweet sarcasm perfectly reflects survival in the modern world.
Stuart is also a working musician, taking his talents from Chicago and Ann Arbor, Michigan, to the West Coast. Besides Brijean, Stuart has offered his talents to Bells Atlas, Meernaa, and Luke Temple. In the Brijean duo, Stuart is the yang to Murphy’s yin.
Macro
I am splitting my album review into two parts to simplify my unnecessarily convoluted thoughts.
Part 1
Emulating the waking of the day, the music in “Get Lost,” the intro to Brijean’s Macro, gently and gradually crescendos. The organ is the metronome of the universe, the musical ticking of a clock; the strings are rays of sunshine as they make their appearance, and Brijean Murphy’s “Let’s go/Let’s go/Let’s go” is a robin singing dawn’s chorus. Then, like an ocean wave, it crashes and rolls onto “Euphoric Avenue.” The music is a continuation of a peaceful southern California morning, yet Brijean laments the pace of time passing and the loss of human connection. She knows there must be more. “Let’s go try something new/Let’s go to Euphoric Avenue/Get lost/Try something new/Get Lost with you.”
“Hey Babe this is the moment,” Brijean sings on the third track. “It’s here it’s now don’t be late.” An upbeat and fast-paced song, “Bang Bang Boom” finds our hero giving into the world of capitalism, desires, priorities, radical acceptance, and obligations. Our world is what it is; it “Is in everything we love it’s in everything that wilts and fades.” Musically, Macro is pushing its stride, building to a Brijean daylight working hour mental health mindful moment dance party. However, the unexpected moves the album in a different direction.
The term afterlife has different meanings. One definition is the time following death, possibly heaven, if religion is brought in. However, it can also mean a later period in a person’s life, perhaps after a significant change. Combining the two definitions might lead to something close to living in paradise.
Go back to “Bang Bang Boom.” As Brijean’s world is spinning out of control near the 3:20 mark, love enters her life. It is a magical moment that flows into “After Life.” The music has slowed to match her thoughts and focus. She feels an overwhelming sense of new beauty entering her life. It is a soft kiss, a caress, a reminder of the true meaning of existence, perfection. “Roxy” is a time portal, a continual and welcome interruption of an unanticipated love. It takes us away from the hectic reality of a self-destructive world, from the world of career desire and push-push-push to the ecstasy of oxytocin. The music reprises the feeling of a sunrise. If only we could live here forever.
An experience such as this opens new passages of consciousness and rewires one’s thought process. It lingers like a strong sillage, the scent trail of a favorite aroma. It is an agent of change, as seen in “Breathe.” Caught between peace and anxiety, Brijean feels the come down from paradise. However, she refuses to allow herself to drown. She takes loss as a lesson.
Part 2
“Counting (Intro)” takes us back to the reality of the modern day. The hustle of the world is there, but it is muted. Brijean’s friends think she is depressed; all she wants to do is sleep. However, her emotions are not as simple as a label. She still has the taste of love in her mouth, and she longs to feel it again. Her friends do not understand that she is “Counting Sheep” because “It’s only in my dreams when I’m with you.” They keep telling her it’s not real, but she says, “(It) feels good to me (and)/It’s impossible to know.”
Time passes, but her friends do not let up; they are full of advice. She should do this and try that. In “Workin’ On It,” Brijean admits she’s “so tired of this apathy/ From the mornin’ til dawn/I just want to be the better me/Craving depth and complexity/I’m workin’ on it.” Musically, she is there, plus some. The impatience and frustration come through in the layers of sound; she is where she needs to be. Still, lethargy and indifference linger in her vocals.
Although the hectic demands of the day are different from the ones in “Bang Bang Boom,” Brijean finds herself back in the position of constant hustle. Unsatisfied, she decides to make a change for herself.
Beginning with the lyrics “Late for work again/Time to phone a friend” in “Scenic Route,” the last three songs take us away with Brijean. She invites us to listen as she and Laura drive through the California wilderness. The music follows her emotions, going from happy for breaking routine to philosophical and self-reflective on life in “Roller Coaster” to accepting the joy of making wise decisions and seeing personal growth. Although life is difficult, she has friends, family, music, and herself, which inevitably means Brijean is winning.
Final Thought: I have listened to this album many times and appreciate how Murphy and Stuart are stretching the limits of their boundaries. Adding friends and other musicians gives them the leverage to push in more directions.
Favorite Songs: “Counting Sheep,” “Workin’ On It,” and “Laura” (What can I say? I love the flow of the last half of the album.)
Rating: 5/5 (because their music is as big as their concept.)
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