Following the release of his underground album Murs Is My Best Friend (a project I actually really enjoyed, despite its complete obscurity), Murs went through a darker period in his life, having a panic attack, and in general feeling a bit more serious and less jovial than he was when making Good Music and Murs Rules the World. He was inspired by this to create an EP entitled Varsity Blues, which not only dealt with his own troubles, but also intended to help young black men and teenagers through their hard times. On the cover it even stated at the bottom: "for colored boys who've considered suicide when the Hennessy and chronic ain't enough", serving to display the deeper message of the project. Whether Murs was aware of the 1999 sport comedy of the same name is anyone's guess, but let's hope that he came up with it himself. Now, this is not a studio album, but rather an EP, and is therefore quite short, at 6 tracks and just over 20 minutes, so be prepared for a smaller write-up than usual. I won't be doing all EPs in his discography, mind (I've already missed some), but since this one seems to be a fan favourite I thought I'd better check it out before getting to his work with Definitive Jux (a period of his career that I am very excited for, by the way).
The project included production from previous collaborator Mum's The Word, as well as Ant of Atmosphere, and then a slew of underground producers who we'd never really heard of before. The album remained featureless aside from one track with The Underbosses (who also appeared on Murs Is My Best Friend), meaning Murs was left to his own devices to express his emotion, probably for the best since this seemed to be such a personal work. He also made sure to include the word "blue" or "blues" in every track title, so that everyone would forget which song was which - yeah, that wasn't a good idea, was it? Still, I'm pretty damned excited for this effort, as Murs has already proved himself as fantastic when he does the more personal tracks, evidenced through songs such as "My Story", "Rescue" and "Angels". As I stated before, this write up will inevitably be shorter than usual, but at least that will save my energy for ....The End Of the Beginning, which is a good thing, as that album is long. Anyway, let's get to it.
1. Varsity Blues (prod. Mum's The Word)
The title track was pretty much what you could have predicted would be the content on this album, but it's still great nonetheless. Mum's the Word provides a brilliantly haunting and sad instrumental for Murs to spit his various problems over, and even though the hook could have done with trimming to be shorter, the verses make up for it with some excellent lyrical content about cheating, addiction and how just because you're making money, doesn't mean you're going to be happy. Murs always brings it with the content, and this is one of his absolute best displays of it. Excellent track.
2. Belief's Blues (prod. Belief)
On this track that's named after the producer of the song, Murs talks about how black men were still being treated differently because of their skin colour, even after the new millennium had already struck, and also how other black men would assume he was in a gang just because of his skin colour. The instrumental on here from Belief (who would go on to work with Murs more in the future) was excellently chilled out, and Murs' lyrics were actually pretty hilarious on here and very engaging. I liked this even more than the first song. "Your light turned green like thirty seconds ago!"
3. County Blues (prod. Ant)
Murs sends a letter out to his mother after having been locked up for a reason only explained in a weird but funny twist right at the end of the track, and the results are absolutely brilliant. Murs flows over this beat perfectly, and I've always been impressed at his ability to engage the listener with content so easily. Not to mention, Ant's beat is straight fire. This one was a lot more light-hearted than the previous two songs, but for my money it was all the better for it.
4. Writer's Blues (feat. The Underbosses) (prod. Bones)
The only track on the album with features, and it's with The Underbosses, who appeared on "Jebediah" on Murs' last album. And it appears with this one we're back to the melancholy stuff, as Murs and the one guest (presumably a member - why would one person call himself "The Underbosses"?) both reflect on their depression, and the reasons for it too. The hook is a little repetitive, but the powerful production is excellent, and both Murs and the guest (who I believe is Luckyiam.PSC) deliver some great verses on here. The line "'cause making good music is all that keeps me alive" was truly goosebump inducing. Great stuff.
5. A Friend's Blues (prod. Justin Martin)
The emotional high of the record, and even if this one was a little more mainstream and less alternative than most of this EP in terms of production, I still found it pretty great, especially the second verse where Murs appears to mourn the death of a young member of his family who passed away while he was out of town. Murs' vocals on this are more passionate than ever before, and the beat, while it's a little sappy, still works very well with the subject matter. The little bassline part at the end was nice too. This was great.
6. The Deepest Blue (prod. Black Panther)
Producer Black Panther provides a more rock-inspired instrumental for this one, that's pretty good, but does feel a little bit generic, y'know? Murs' flow was a little dull here, but it did fit the lyrics, so I can't fault him for that. Still, I found this to be just alright, and sadly in the midst of these other tracks that's not quite enough. Still, not a bad way to end things.
Varsity Blues, while short, was actually a really great listen. After listening to the first song (which I still really liked, mind you), I was worried that we were going to be getting constant depression, but the two songs after that were a little more light-hearted in their own ways, making for in my opinion the two best cuts on the whole thing - Murs was always good at the humorous stuff. The second half definitely got a lot darker, but by then it felt appropriate, and there was more excellent lyrical content and production work to be found there. Sure, the outro track wasn't fantastic, but as for the rest of this thing? Really, really good stuff. Murs is an incredibly charismatic MC who constantly comes with brilliant and relatable content, and his ear for beats is also constantly working overtime to give us the best musical backing possible. The results are that this ended up being a really entertaining EP with some of my favourite songs in the Murs catalogue so far. This has made me even more hyped for ....The End Of the Beginning, and if there's any Murs fans out there who forgot that this project ever existed, make sure that you go back and check it out - it's pretty bloody great stuff.
Expectations: Matched
Best Track: Belief's Blues
Worst Track: The Deepest Blue
Check out all the other episodes in the constantly growing Murs-athon here.
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