Chris Muhsic - The Afternoon EP

Chris Muhsic

​The Afternoon EP
self-released; 2016

3.3 out of 5

By Ted Rogen

Chris Muhsic claims that his voice has been described as “warm chocolate melting over your tongue.” Hhmm better analogies have surely been said. If you happen to not like chocolate then this doesn’t bold well. I would also say the idea of having warm chocolate poured into my mouth doesn’t sound particularly appealing. 

Muhsic will be releasing four EP’s this year with his first being The Afternoon EP. Truth be told there isn't much you need to know about this EP. All of the songs revolve around his guitar and vocals and the songs sound more or less interchangeable. Muhsic plays simple chord progressions and sings. That's really about it. 

Muhsic does have a good voice but has such a typical singer/songwriter style that mainly resides in the mainstream that it’s hard to separate his sound from so many others who sound so similar. We live in a day and age when you have to be different for many reasons but the main one being that anyone can release music and they do. There is so much music being released and the competition is as steep as ever.

There is nothing wrong with attempting to keep someone's attention over multiple songs with nothing but a guitar and your vocals but make no mistake about it - it's not easy. You really have to show some very good skill on the guitar like Sufjan Steven, The Tallest Man on Earth or Iron and Wine to capture my attention. Muhsic may be capable but he doesn’t display it on the EP. Muhsic sticks almost entirely to strummed major and minor chords that a first year guitar student shouldn't have much trouble pulling off. Luckily, his vocal style is the focal center and he realizes that he needs to change it up quite often to mitigate the marginal guitar parts.

The best moments come at the very end of the EP with a swirling piano part and aggressively strummed guitar chords, which give you a sense of perseverance. Hopefully this is a sign of greater things to come. 

Overall, Muhsic’s biggest asset is his voice. He can surely sing but I couldn’t help but think he was relying a little too much on this delivery that seems quite ubiquitous amongst singer/songwriters. Sometimes he sounds like a relaxed Jack Johnson type while also feeding the more fast-paced reggae style. 

If Muhsic is going to stick to the basic chords he might as well just get a backing band to flesh out the songs. On the other hand if he is going to stick to just guitar some unique picking style getting introduced would be a plus. Muhsic has some skill but will most likely have to dig a bit deeper if he hopes to make a career from his music. 

Become A Fan

Tweet