As the full title/cover of this sophomore album suggests, Kevin Morby's songwriting keeps the playfully serious tone set on Harlem River (a 2013 staff fave here), thriving on collaboration while also seemingly needing the necessary time alone to recharge and rebuild. Having recently parted ways with Woods and moved to L.A., Still Life finds Morby managing to successfully echo the work of peers and elders (Kurt Vile, Cass McCombs, even Bill Fay in the way each vocal line lilts up on closer "Our Moon") while starting to come into his own and stand out as a bandleader/solo artist.
"[Still Life] reflects both time in transit and the quiet confines of his new home in Montecito Heights. Scenes of performers, audience expectations and the paradoxical confines of a roving individual perpetually caught in a crowd percolate the songs, notably in 'The Jester, The Tramp, The Acrobat,' and 'Parade.' (Morby calls the latter an elegy of sorts for one of his major influences, Lou Reed). Violent fates, wrestling with destiny and the nature of death creep into songs like 'The Ballad of Arlo Jones,' 'Bloodsucker' and 'Amen.' Even Morby's more obvious love songs like 'All of My Life,' 'Drowning' and “Our Moon” are highly bittersweet; the characters in these songs seem to never quite find each other, but perhaps they find themselves.
As with Harlem River, Still Life is once again produced by Rob Barbato (Cass McCombs, Darker My Love), who adds his signature guitar and bass playing to the album. The album was engineered and mixed by Drew Fischer, who worked on Harlem River as well as The Babies' second full length album Our House on the Hill, and was recorded between March and June of 2014 at Barbato and Fischer's new Burbank recording studio, Comp'ny. Morby is also once again joined by Justin Sullivan (The Babies) on drums and percussion." - Woodsist