Matthew Murphy’s debut solo album under his Love Fame Tragedy moniker (taken from a Pablo Picasso exhibition) landed last week, and it’s an interesting mix of sounds and styles from one of the current indie scene’s longest-serving songwriters.

Combining his two EPs I Don’t Want To Play The Victim, But I’m Really Good At It and Five Songs To Briefly Fill The Void with seven new songs, Wherever I Go, I Want To Leave comes in at a generous 17 songs.

The Wombats frontman, better known as Murph, mixes electro, pop, and indie inside its 50-minute running time, and uses every ounce of his nearly 20 years of experience with his band to create this intensely catchy collection.

Lead single 5150 eases you into proceedings before My Cheating Heart ramps things up with its skidding electro beat and soaring chorus line. Hardcore combines a big guitar riff with some sharply off-kilter lyrics as Murphy sings: “You’re deceptive / A pyramid scheme / Some profits trickle down / But you don’t let them trickle down to me / You’re so hardcore / You make me want to start a band”.

There’s moments of real introspection in the lyrics too, most notably on Pills where he sings “There’s an echo in the space my heart should be / A dirty little place where nothing is free / The pills don’t work anymore / Not like they used to, not like the used to / I still take them I don’t know what for / I’ve never f**ked up like this before”. You Take The Fun Out Of Everything is a strutting highlight, as is Backflip and Sharks, while Please Don’t Murder Me (Part 2) and The Sea Is Deep and The World Is Wide are gentle intermissions in the otherwise often high tempo proceedings.

The production throughout Wherever I Go, I Want To Leave is excellent too, and gives every single track here a polished, radio-ready feel. Love Fame Tragedy might just be Murphy’s side project, but there’s no let up in the hits here.

Wherever I Go, I Want To Leave track list:

1. 5150

2. My Cheating Heart

3. Pills 4. Body Parts

5. Multiply featuring Jack River

6. Hardcore

7. Everything Affects Me Now

8. You Take The Fun Out Of Everything

9. Please Don’t Murder Me (Part 2)

10. Backflip

11. Sharks

12. B Team

13. Pink Mist

14. Honeypie

15. The Sea Is Deep and The World Is Wide

16. Riding A Wave

17. Brand New Brain

Listen to the official audio for 5150 below.

 indie       electro       pop 

Author: Joe Sharratt

Joe Sharratt is a writer and journalist based in the UK covering music, literature, sport, and travel.