Today, I’m excited to share a fresh release from folk singer-songwriter Molly Murphy. Her new track, “Thin Glass,” just dropped, and it’s giving us a sneak peek into her upcoming EP. The EP, titled “Tigers in Your Backyard (Nocturnal Edition),” is set to release on September 6th. That’s right around the corner, so get your pre-saves ready.
Her road to this point is a pretty cool one – her background adds some real depth to her work. She has a great educational background. Her time at the University of Notre Dame, where she studied film and English, clearly laid a strong foundation for her current path. It’s easy to see how those disciplines would feed into songwriting. The art of crafting a story, understanding pacing and structure – these are skills that translate beautifully from literature to music.
Trading the classroom for the recording studio, seems to be paying off. There’s often a richness to artists who come to music from other fields – they bring fresh perspectives and unique approaches to telling stories through song. Speaking of her storytelling, she takes influences from Irish folk, which is perfect.
Irish folk music carries with it a deep-rooted tradition that spans generations. As someone who’s long appreciated this genre, I myself have always been drawn to the storytelling, such as tales of mist-covered hills and lively gatherings. Molly takes these elements and intertwines them with indie folk sensibilities, creating something truly special.
At the same time, she takes threads from the golden era of folk music into her Celtic-inspired sound. Her style echoes the free-spirited ethos of the 60s and 70s folk revival, bringing to mind smoky coffee houses and sun-dappled festival fields. Which ‘Celtic flower power’, truly is the best way to describe her sound, as she puts it in her own words.
With looking back at her journey she comments:
“With this album, I finally feel in control of my music. I’ve spent years developing my production skills and collaborating with other musicians, pushing the boundaries of genres from ‘Celtic Flower Power’ to ‘Art Folk.’”
Her Celtic flower power style is rooted in Irish soil, but blooms with vibrant colors of the free spirit of indie folk. Her music truly is a garden of Celtic charm filled with untamed beauty.
‘Thin Glass’ opens with a gentle embrace, giving off a warm, folksy ambiance. Molly’s delivery is tinged with a world-weary quality, her voice carrying the weight of someone who’s reached their emotional limit. Her singing is imbued with a quiet ache, perfectly capturing the song’s core.
In the background, sorrowful violin strings create a pattern of melancholy, enhancing the overall mood of heartache. As the chorus arrives, the impact deepens. Molly’s passion intensifies, her style becoming more pronounced, yet the melancholic undercurrent remains strong, flowing through every word.
The song’s atmosphere experiences a brief lift with the introduction of brushy percussion, adding new layering without dispelling the underlying sadness. During the second verse, haunting vocals come in through the background, creating an ethereal quality. These ghostly harmonies linger in the background, as if echoing the unresolved emotions expressed in the lyrics.
What’s striking about the instrumentation and arrangements is how they mirror the lyrical content. The music seems to hover in an emotional antechamber, much like the words themselves. There’s a warmth and gentleness to the sound that could almost be perceived as uplifting, yet the sorrow is evident throughout.
This delicate balance between comfort and sadness is masterfully maintained throughout the track. The folksy elements provide a familiar, almost cozy feeling, while the melancholic undertones remind us of the pain at the heart of the song. It’s this contrast that gives the track its expressiveness.
Throughout the piece, Molly’s performance remains the centerpiece. Her ability to convey complex emotions through her voice is remarkable, shifting between weariness, longing, and a touch of hope with subtle changes in tone and intensity. Molly’s voice is the anchor of this song, the emotional compass taking you through those shifting tides, making you feel every word as if it were your own story being sung.
Speaking of which, when it comes to the lyrics, imagine standing on one side of a glass wall, palm pressed against the cool surface. On the other side, a figure you once knew intimately mimics your pose. So close, yet impossibly far. And as for this song, it’s that moment, stretched into a gentle and melancholic tune. The song speaks of a runaway freight train, all momentum and no brakes. It’s a feeling we know too well – that instant when emotions take the wheel, logic is out the window.
It’s about being stuck in emotional purgatory, aches for the past while wrestling with the cold reality of the present. It’s for those of us who’ve ever stood in the wreckage of a relationship, squinting at the horizon and wondering if that’s really the end or just a very long comma. The great thing about this track lies in its ability to put words to that nebulous space between ‘over’ and ‘not quite’.
It’s about a love that refuses to die, even when it should. A look at the stubborn embers of that old connection, refusing to be extinguished. But tangled up in that longing is a deep mistrust, this fear that the foundation was cracked from the start. If you’ve ever had your heart broken like that, this song will hit you. It captures that ache of grief, where every path leads back to the ghost of what once was. Be it with unspoken words full of hope and despair—it’s all there.
In its honesty, ‘Thin Glass’ is a chance to sit with those messy feelings we all try to bury. I think it explains that healing isn’t linear. It’s messy, and it takes time. In the end, this song is a mirror. It reflects back at us many of our own experiences of the messy space in between. It doesn’t offer solutions or happy endings. It’s showing us that many of us have been in these same circumstances, and sometimes, that’s exactly what we need to hear.
Again, be sure to check out Molly Murphy’s new track “Thin Glass,” you can stream it now using this link. It’s a good chance to get familiar with her work before the full EP drops. Don’t forget that Murphy’s EP “Tigers in Your Backyard (Nocturnal Edition)” is set to release on September 6th. That’s just around the corner, so keep an eye out for it.
