ALBUM REVIEW: On Cornelia Murr ‘Run to the Center’ Returns with More Tactile Work
Maeri Ferguson
Posted On February 25, 2025
There was a wispy, ethereal quality to Cornelia Murr’s 2018 debut LP Lake Tear of the Clouds, and an angelic echo of that on her excellent 2022 EP Corridor. But with time comes growth and change, and her long-anticipated follow-up, Run to the Center shows off a new version of Murr, one more earth-bound, feet firmly rooted in driving, percussive arrangements. Written in rural Nebraska during her home restoration, the album mirrors the renovation with an up-from-the-ashes spirit of new beginnings. It’s tactile, like you could hold it in your hands, and it wouldn’t slip through your fingers like Murr’s breathtaking, airier work.
The touch of producer Luke Temple—known for his work with Adrienne Lenker—can be felt on Run to the Center in the strong elasticity of Murr’s vocals and the grounded, pastoral sonics. Synths collide with drums and bass to create unexpected quirks. “Spiral of Beauty,” a hazy standout about shedding and awakening to something new, is the epitome of Murr expanding her sound with a kaleidoscopic 1970s acid trip instrumentals worthy of her enchanting voice.
The album’s opening track “Skylight,” has a 1980s lilt while Murr tries to keep things easy with a lover in the vocal vein of Molly Burch, a little mix of breathy funk set to a danceable groove. The ghostly sheen on the harmonies of “Pushing East” works in gorgeous contrast with its full-bodied wall-of-sound accompaniment, where “Meantime” makes the most of strings in a huge orchestral moment that adds an extra thick layer of shimmer to Murr’s vocals as she sings and whistles.
Run to the Center is an exciting risk for an artist wanting to show all she can do, including the different parts of herself that might seem less obvious on the surface, but were buried there all along. That dreamy quality Murr has perfected is still there, but like a house stripped down to its bones, something even more intriguing awaits.
Cornelia Murr Run to the Center is out Feb. 28 via 22Twenty.
