| Selling the Gold | |
| Type: | studio |
| Artist: | Elliott Murphy |
| Cover: | Selling the Gold.jpg |
| Released: | 1995 |
| Studio: | ICP |
| Label: | Musidisc |
| Producer: | Djoum, Elliott Murphy |
| Prev Title: | Unreal City |
| Prev Year: | 1993 |
| Next Title: | Going Through Something: The Best of Elliot Murphy |
| Next Year: | 1996 |
Selling the Gold is an album by the American musician Elliott Murphy, released in Europe 1995.[1] [2] It was released in the United States in January 1996.[3] Murphy, who had for years been selling better in Europe, shot a video for "Love to America".[4] Murphy supported the album with a North American tour.[5]
Recorded at ICP Studios, in Brussels, Belgium, the album was produced by Djoum and Murphy.[6] Bruce Springsteen sang on "Everything I Do (Leads Me Back to You)".[7] Violent Femmes played on "King of the Serpentine".[8] Sonny Landreth appeared on "Then I'm Gonna Make Love to You".[9] "Is Fellini Really Dead" is a tribute to the director, for whom Murphy had worked. "Selling the Gold" is about selling a ring to a pawn shop. "Buddy and Peggy Sue" examines a couple on a road trip.[10]
Newsday likened the album to Murphy's debut, writing that, "from the instrumentation to the thematic material, the two records, decades apart, draw a portrait of a troubadour who's stuck to his guns."[11] The Hartford Courant stated the Murphy's lyrics are "tightly wound novellas with strong images and fresh metaphors."[9] The St. Louis Post-Dispatch praised "Taste the Good Life" and "Love to America".[12] Tulsa World noted that Murphy "tells rambling tales with a probing, decadent post-hippie perspective."[13]
Stereo Review opined: "He plays acoustic guitar for texture and clear-toned leads for embellishment, while his voice—a Lou Reed by Bob Dylan urban-folk burr that shapes words with a poet's open heart and a rocker's offhand wit—is an unmistakable instrument in its own right."[14] The Fort Worth Star-Telegram wrote that "Murphy weaves his pithy, highly intelligent narratives and observations (mainly about America in these twisted times) into 11 mainly country-flavored songs."[15] The Daily Herald deemed Selling the Gold "a mature work by one of the best rock singer-songwriters you've probably never heard of."[16]
AllMusic called the album "a group of folk-rock songs full of highly literate lyrics that commented on modern life from an ironic perspective."