Usually, when the frontman of a band starts a solo side-project, it’s just one-off diversion between albums, something for him to do when not with his band, and it stays in that band’s shadow. Yet Paul Murphy of Wintersleep is on his fourth album as POSTDATA, and Run Wild proves it’s as good as anything he’s done in his ‘main gig’.
Now, like most solo side-projects (though Murphy works with a rotating cast of people for POSTDATA, including his brother Michael, and Grant Hutchison of Frightened Rabbit), Run Wild is an intimate affair, and leans even more into his rather Canadian alt-country ways. But that ranges from the alt-cheer of the title track to the killer drive in “Try”, not to mention the pressing, expansive indie with “Dead Man”. There’s sweetness like “Look To the Stars”, and sadness like finisher “Raven”.
There’s a reason most solo side-projects only last an album or two: they’re not as good as what the artist does with their band. But POSTDATA stands tall, once again.
