image courtesy of Brian Muratori

Single Reviews: Brian Muratori – “Jagged Edge” and “Endless Summer”

The Backstory

I’ve known Brian Muratori for decades. When we were both “under 21” we used to hang out at the same all-ages dance clubs in West Michigan. Of course, back then, he wasn’t a professional singer, and I wasn’t a music journalist. His first professionally-recorded album, The Italian Rocker, was released a couple years before I started writing reviews. (The dude’s younger than I am; he just got an early start.) I did eventually get a chance to review one of his recordings, his “Starting Over” cassingle, for Geoff Wilbur’s Renegade Newsletter in the mid-’90s. (I’m pretty sure it’s been decades since I last typed the word “cassingle.”) Well, the cool thing is that Brian and I are both still at it, continuing to ply our respective trades in the music business.

image courtesy of Brian Muratori

The Review

Stylistically, Brian’s voice is that of a top-flight lounge crooner, a performer with a firm grasp of all the pop, soft rock, and pop-rock vocal stylings necessary to make an evening of music into a fun, memorable event. Brian has released several singles over the past year. I’ve chosen to review two that are representative of his skills – one from Brian’s At the Hollywood Party collection and the other his most recent, post-Party single. The first, “Jagged Edge,” was released in late 2022 and is included on Brian’s At the Hollywood Party album on Spotify. The other single, “Endless Summer,” is Brian’s most recent release; it dropped – fittingly for a “summer” song – late in the summer, just a few weeks ago.

“Jagged Edge,” kicks off with light, classic soft pop-rock power-synth and a pleasant rhythm, and it’ll soon have you bopping along as well-placed oohs and ohs complement Brian’s groovy delivery, with his insistent vocal build-up leading into smooth choruses.

photo courtesy of Brian Muratori

“Endless Summer,” meanwhile, begins with a beach-pop chorus of “oohs,” leading to soft adult contemporary verses and chorus, with occasional dancing guitar riffs adding color and flavor. This cool summer number is an updated, groovy throwback tune that harkens back to soft rock’s heyday.

“Jagged Edge” and “Endless Summer” are fun songs, and Brian’s voice can carry them well, mustering up all the storytelling nuance necessary to deliver a great final product. They’re convincing proof that “an evening with Brian Muratori” would be a fun live event. While I picture an upscale night of dinner an crooning, his style would also play well in an intimate theater or smoky barroom setting, if smoky barrooms were still a thing. These tunes would also be well-placed in Hallmark movies, likely with some crisper, less jagged production to help them blend more easily into the soundtrack.

In the end, these singles – and Brian’s other songs, some of which you’ll find on Spotify – paint a picture of a talented, modern-day crooner, and I’m pleased to hear Brian carrying on that fine musical tradition. Stylistically, Brian’s music is well-timed to take advantage of the existence of the yacht rock genre, into which his music fits easily.

Beyond These Songs

If you dug the two songs I reviewed, other standouts I’d recommend to yacht rock fans include Brian’s 2022 single “You Had to Go and Change on Me” and, from At the Hollywood Party, “Alligator Drive” and “Ooh Baby I Think You’re Driving Me Crazy.”

Looking Ahead

Brian Muratori’s Facebook page would be a good place to start if you want to remain abreast of new single releases and other artist news. You can also find new songs, as they’re released, on Brian’s Spotify and Bandcamp pages.