Môr, has returned with their new album, The Wisdom of Simple Things, which was released on April 4, of this year.
Môr is made up of: Chris Matthews, who plays lead guitar, does the album mixing, and generates the album production; Peter Rand, who plays keyboards and guitar; and Ramlee Oak, who writes the band’s lyrics, sings lead vocals, and plays bass, drums, and additional instruments.
According to the band, the theme and concept of The Wisdom of Simple Things is based on what Ramlee says, “A clinical psychologist friend once told me that most of his clients, when you stripped away the personal case details, essentially were struggling with their relationships. He was referring specifically to person/person relationships but I soon realized that this was just the tip of our relational iceberg. My writing reveals, I hope, that I’m drawn to the exploration of relationships. I am absolutely convinced that if we were more mindful of our relationships, if we really put them front and center, a lot of the misery we create for ourselves and others would be avoided. To write and sing about it them is both catharsis and prayer for a gentler, more peaceful world”.
“Night Light”, is easily one of the best songs on the album. It is a powerful lyrical track, which lays the foundation for the concept, and defines it with examples. It opens with powerful piano notes, before drums, and a soundscape full of orchestration and strings. Ramlee Oak, (who at times sounds a little like Peter Murphy), sings, “Along an ancient coastline, into a sheltered bay, my mother swam ashore to a gathering underway. It was a grand reunion, an annual soiree, without the Tupperware or all-you-can-eat buffet. And as she left the water, to an expanse of sand, she saw a thousand sisters spread out along the strand. They had a larger mission, to advance our kind, to fulfil a promise antiquity designed. How do they expect me to survive, it seems that I’ve been buried alive. A cool and dark high water mark, where I sleep both safe and dry. And for a hundred million years, our mothers filled the sea with their tears. The tide now high, they say goodbye, leaving us behind. Then came a day, no longer could I stay, an urge, a flight, to make it to the light. I ran, I fled as gulls flew overhead, we fly, we flee, at last we feel the sea”. He concludes the song with perfect lyrics, “From apogee to perigee, the moon over the Isle of Capri. The coral cay where Hemingway, wrote about the will to live. A majestic and dramatic scene, a planet bathed in aquamarine. A tiny land where Paul Gauguin, learned how to forgive. Then with the dawn, the coast where I was born, my course as planned, the clean secluded strand. My hope, my fear, the force that guides me here, we reunite, we’ll make it to the light”. Over 6 minutes of calm and bliss.
“The Wisdom of Simple Things”, is the title song and also one of the best songs on the album. After listening to the lyrics, you will know why this was chosen as the album title. Ramlee Oak, sings, all set to soft acoustic guitar, “T’was always inconceivable, we’d ever conquer flight. We used to think the Earth was flat, the Sun our satellite. Our greatest minds alone withdrew, afraid to speak of what they knew. Experiment and evidence, the triumph of intelligence. Confronting fear and ignorance, the arrogant and rude. To those who persevered we owe, a debt of gratitude. To struggle through a sea of hate, and finally authenticate. Resolve contention, end dispute, perhaps the noblest pursuit. So much we take for granted now, some truth has been revealed. Unquestioning obedience, has largely been repealed. When crossed-purposes collide, Ockham’s razor as a guide. When the provocation stings, the wisdom of simple things. When the angry call to coup, suppresses every other view. Seek the calm that reason brings, the wisdom of simple things. This age of post enlightenment, is easily displaced. Repression, guilt and slavery is, for some, more to their taste. A demagogue can win the day, and lead the maddened mob astray. Beware of those who shun debate, unwilling to negotiate. Hope is swift and flies with swallow’s wings. The wisdom of simple things!” Indeed! As if he is writing in both the immediate presence of an American election cycle which is bringing all he mentions to bear; as well as all of the battles of the past centuries of human existence. One of the most powerful lyrical songs of the year. The peaceful orchestration and strings helps calm all fears.
“Room for Another” opens with soft acoustic and electric guitar, with great bass and drum support. Ramlee Oak, sings, “The faithful form a line, in sotto voce wait their turn. To trade their darkest secrets for the pardon they might earn. Their sins are all the same, their torment and their shame. Contrition and regret, bewildered and beset. Any two explanations are like black and white. You’d have to figure they can’t all be right. Too many stories to debunk and compare. But always room for another in the market square”. He continues, “As old gods shuffle off to die, the young gods will follow. Once revered, now forgotten, fickle as the moon. Once were feared, now forsaken, capricious and jejune. Let’s assume the world has room for one more messiah. Droves of willing faithful left to throw on the fire. Still so young, this age of reason, let the pyres burn”. Yes, probably the most powerful lyrics I’ve heard on continuous songs to fill an album. Keep up the great work!
“Circles”, opens with woodwinds and soft percussion and chimes. The warm sound of the acoustic guitar fills the air, before Ramlee Oak, sings, “A stone tossed in a pond makes circles, like a baby’s cry arouses every ear. The force that binds us in our orbit to the sun and the cycle of the seasons every year. In this way, bodies of water are attracted to the moon they have no choice but to obey. By decree, oceans are lifted up to float across the sky to finally flow back to the sea. We pass through life conflicted; we can sense that we’ve been absent for too long. Pursuing passions that fulfill our base desires, unaware that much of what we do is wrong. The glade and the garden, a prayer and a pardon. Tide and time in circles, trilobites and turtles .We’re all here together”. Absolutely the universe working in concert with each other. Humans are the only ones out of place and trying to change the motion of the world to fit their design. Ramlee Oak brings it to a close well, “But love can lift you up and half your burden bear, and offer comfort when you wonder why. We stand outside the circles. Move back into the circles”.
“Out of Place”, is full of great bass and electric lead guitar, along with those perfectly timed chimes. Ramlee Oak sings about the cult of greed and possession, “A cult of secret handshakes, of rituals and signs. A world carved into futures and artificial lines. Acquisitive and jealous, impossible to please. Could almost see the forest, if it wasn’t for the trees. Power lunching hear the numbers crunching over cellared wine. Walnut molding over deals unfolding, as they countersign. Millions made but lost in space, feels like something’s out of place”. The modern world full of the capitalistic drive for more material goods. Something is definitely out of place. Our constant need for more of what we really don’t need, for survival.
“Rivers”, almost opens like a hymn, with symphonic keyboards and soft electric guitar. Ramlee Oak sings, “Unseen and underground, a metaphor to parse and ponder. Water is river-bound, by convoluted maze. Each life, a multitude, a confluence of tributaries. Each twist and turn pursued, in unintended ways. Slowed through the everglades, erosion leads to deposition”. He returns to sing, after a wonderful keyboard solo, “Endure, and through your effort carve a passage to the ocean”. Some of the best keyboard sounds I’ve heard all year. Exceptional. Tony Banks and Keith Emerson would delight in hearing them.
“Interior Man”, opens with cool electric guitar riffs and awesome keyboards. Ramlee Oak sings, “Adrift in a carnival of charity, pretense, cult and crime. Andy said we’re a mess of senses working overtime. Risen from the slime, because of an enzyme. Nature her custom holds, let shame say what it will. No name for my new neurosis, a double shot and sleeping pill. Like a dentist’s drill, a painful purpose to fulfil. You must admit it’s quite ironic, we only have the human mind. To comprehend our own cognition, no telling what you’ll find. No knowing what triggers me, an impulse or a casual remark. Quantum leap to quark, from humble sage to oligarch”. A storybook of lyrical content which will teach and at the same time amuse. Unveiling the make-up of the human species.
Lyrics really separate this album from all others this year, so far. But the acoustic guitar, strings, bass, soft drums, woodwinds and the keyboards make this wonderful music, instead of a soliloquy. “The Fortunate Ones”, speaks of all the things we need to consider in life. The fortunate and the unfortunate existing on the same planet, but separated. Ramlee Oak sings, “But a simple act of kindness has more concentrated power than a thousand rising suns. We are the fortunate ones”.
“First Here”, is another powerful commentary on life today on Earth, set to acoustic and electric guitar, with a strong soundscape supporting behind.
“Hymn to the Ordinary”, according to Ramlee Oak: “Captures my feelings as a father”. He sings, “It was easier to withdraw, safer to pull away, easier to conceal or reach for an old cliché. Confident in my shell, watching the world outside, quick to accuse and shame, empty but fortified. What a fool, self-possessed and cruel. Inevitably we change, none of us stay the same, my enemies all dissolved, nobody left to blame. A dreamer without a clue, ambition without a name, looking for something real, then into my world you came. Epiphany, gave your love to me I didn’t know what to be, but figured out what to do, it’s built on a simple plan of being here now for you. Came down from my castle wall, I feel like an escapee, you challenge me to improve, you bring out the best in me. Sometimes I lose sight of the beauty that surrounds me, of the gift to hear your laughter, of our precious time together. Sometimes in the dark when my demons gather round me, I speak your name and I see your face. Then you swoop down and rescue me, again and again and again. You fly down and rescue me, when shadows engulf my hope, you bring out my best”. The power of the music lifts this one slightly above the title track as the best song on the album. I am also a father and I understand every word of what Ramlee Oak is saying here.
“Downstream”, is a beautiful acoustic guitar track, with flute. Ramlee Oak sings, “It’s said that every particle of everything we know. Was formed in an explosion fourteen billion years ago. Watertight?…an interim explanation to be proven right. Who’s to say?…when those claiming they saw it aren’t alive today. There are some believe all we perceive is just a waking dream. That we’re supercilious sailors in a yellow submarine. They say that every human heart is usually broken twice. So ‘third time lucky’ hardly sounds like good advice. Could be true, a broken thing repaired is never good as new. It’s a widely held opinion, water boiled becomes steam. So climb aboard with Huck and Jim and drift downstream”. I think they meant Huck Finn, but most of us know their stories, and they are about adventure and living life to its fullest.
Môr would like to thank the following musicians who contributed their time and expertise – With our grateful thanks to the following people who were all involved in the tracks, Nick DeNardo, David Stahl, Brian Henry, Jim Bryan, Alex Fadista, Alberto Alberti, Moe Howard, Ralph Tonge, Matthew Heindorff, and Milt Barney.
Môr’s The Wisdom of Simple Things, is an excellent album that all progressive rock fans should hear. Please give this album a chance to be heard. The lyrics are more than enough reason to purchase this album. But the music is just as powerful. Every song on this album is worth your time. I am so glad that I asked Môr to send me their album. This is a great one. Don’t let it pass you by.
Track List
- Night Light – 6:37
- The Wisdom of Simple Things – 4:05
- Room for Another – 6:00
- Circles – 3:44
- Out of Place – 6:26
- Rivers – 5:27
- Interior Man – 4:07
- The Fortunate Ones – 3:41
- First Here – 3:51
- Hymn to the Ordinary – 7:26
- Downstream – 3:08
Website and Social Media Sites:
https://mor2.bandcamp.com/album/the-wisdom-of-simple-things
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61552565057023
You Tube and Music Videos:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGuPddKADcBzr_J4BKAXrWg