LUKE MORLEY (Thunder) – Songs From The Blue Room (2023)

LUKE MORLEY has stood at the very heart of UK rockers Thunder since 1989 as their guitarist, chief songwriter and producer. He’s been a lynchpin in their 14 albums success and served a crucial role in building up these rock heroes’ loyal fan base and enduring popularity. In the past 5 years alone, Thunder have released no fewer than three UK Top Five albums.
Impressive metrics, but there’s more to Luke Morley than most know, and his brand-new solo album ‘Songs from The Blue Room‘ brings other aspects of his talents into the limelight, as he confidently steps into the arena of Classic Rock, Blues and Rock-tinged Americana.
This new solo album is a tour de force for Luke Morley’s multiple talents: songwriter, singer, musician and producer. Not only is he a renowned guitarist, but he plays all instruments on the album, bar drums.
‘Songs from The Blue Room’ also brings Luke Morley’s strong, but nuanced, rock vocals to the fore where he sings lead on all tracks.

‘Songs From the Blue Room’ is a confident, assured piece of work. Varied and diverse in places with hints of that Thunder Rock / Blues sound in others. All the early buzz has centred around lead single ‘Killed By Cobain’ which has a kind of Beatles meets The Kinks vibe to it. It’s a honest yet tongue-in-cheek look at what happened in America in the early 90s that stymied any hopes that Thunder had of breaking through over there, delivered with a grace and a class that those of us who have been Thunder fans since the early days have come to associate with Mr Morley.

Those folks looking to see where the Thunder influences lie will find a great deal of joy in ‘I’m the One You Want’ and ‘Watch the Sun Go Down’. That’s Luke Morley, himself, playing the harmonica on the latter song whilst delivering a very positive post-pandemic uplifting message. ‘I’m the One You Wan’t, meanwhile, is a hidden gem, beast of a song that will stand out in Morley’s live set if he gets the chance to take ‘….. the Blue Room’ out on tour.

There is a kind of freedom for Morley that comes with making a solo album outside of his ‘day job’ with Thunder. Freed of the shackles of fan expectation, he can be a little more relaxed with the songs, lyrics and structure and it shows across the whole of this album.
There are echoes of Tom Petty, Traveling Wilburys in some places, classic British Rock in others. The Beatles figure in a number of places. Queen, The Faces, ELO / Jeff Lyne, and a whole mix of influences that make ”Songs From the Blue Room” a really diverse, entertaining listen.

You won’t find anything more diverse on the album than ‘Nobody Cares’. Lyrically, the song reminds me of Thunder’s ‘Preaching From a Chair’ only this time we find Luke having a pop at the mundanity of most people’s use of, and reliance on, social media. The left-of-centre twist, however, comes in the musical arrangement of this song. Morley, himself, doesn’t know where the arrangement or idea came from, but thank god it did because ‘Nobody Cares’ is one of the most original songs on the album.

There’s a hint of Petty-esque Americana on ‘Lying to Myself’ where we see the emergence of the harmonica. There’s also the ‘Sgt Peppers‘ melodies on album closer ‘Don’t Be Long’ that add to the general mix of sounds and styles. Cardiff based string quarter, The Brydon Quartet add to the sweeping feel of ‘Don’t Be Long’ as Morley shows us his best Paul McCartney impression on an uplifting track on which he also plays the piano and sings, poignantly, about loss.

‘Songs From the Blue Room’ is an engaging, mature and very enjoyable listen. You can hear the link back to Morley’s ‘day job’ in Thunder just enough to satisfy the die hards but this album is much, much more an eclectic and meandering journey through the mind and music of a powerhouse staple of the British Rock scene.
There is a confidence and swagger to proceedings that can only come from an artist at peace with themselves and willing to take the necessary risks for their art without having to compromise or write in a certain style.
Luke Morley has let his own influences merge with this more relaxed style to form something greater than the sum of its own parts. ‘Songs From the Blue Room’ is an imaginative and intelligent solo album that will delight fans of all kinds of classic rock music and not just people looking for another ‘River of Pain’ or ‘Dirty Love’.
Highly Recommended

01 – I Wanna See the Light
02 – Killed By Cobain
03 – Errol Flynn
04 – Damage
05 – Nobody Cares
06 – Watch the Sun Go Down
07 – Cry Like Rain
08 – Lying to Myself
09 – I’m the One You Want
10 – Don’t Be Long

BUY
amazon.co.uk/Songs-Blue-Room-Luke-Morley/dp/B0C652B1YP