REAY - Butterfly Tongue Revisited (Vinyl LP Record)

Chosen top Canadian album 2019 by tinnitist.com

Some butterflies spend their lives in migration, flying toward the horizon on determination and instinct. 

Sean Murray can identify. He has spent ages doggedly pursuing a distant goal: The completion of Butterfly Tongue Revisited, a labour of love from his indie-rock project Reay. 

"This has been a project of perseverance," he understates. "It's been in the works for years ... Now it's finally finished. And it's the most soul-cleansing experience of my life." 

It's also a listening experience you won't forget. BTR is an album in the organic, old-school sense: Expertly crafted, carefully arranged and sequenced to be transcendent and transfixing, timely yet timeless, familiar yet unique. There are sonic, stylistic and songwriting nods to everyone from Pink Floyd to The Verve, Death Cab to War on Drugs — all topped with Murray's soulful rasp and poetic lyrics. 

For Reay — Murray, guitarist Ryan Smith, bassist Chad VanDusen, drummer Matt Copeland and Bayze Murray on guitar/keyboards — the trip has just begun. With Butterfly Tongue Revisited taking flight Sept. 6, Murray is already eyeing the horizon. "My goal is to make four or five more of these." 

This butterfly isn't touching down anytime soon.