When you first listen to Neal Morgan’s newest album, In the Yard, you are taken aback. You think, “Well, this is different.” But by no means does this imply anything negative. In fact, this difference in compositional style is to be relished in. And with each listen, you wander deeper into the mind of Neal Morgan.

With percussion taking the foreground, Morgan also incorporates the use of vocals as instruments. And with his own singing—or narration—over this instrumentation, you can’t help but think of such literary heroes as Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg. In fact, it can be argued that Morgan has created his own form of Beat storytelling.

In the Yard reads like a series of journal entries, with Morgan narrating along his ideas of place and his relationship to his environment. No matter the setting, whether in the water, a backyard, or on a hill, Morgan’s surroundings are a predominant factor in this album.

The album opens with “On Tour.” We hear Morgan recite a poetic verse about a trip to a quarry where people are swimming. His telling of the story is so evocative that you feel like a voyeur yourself. You can see the girl he sings of take the rope and swing into the water. With crash cymbals symbolizing a splash, the album quickly moves into its first single, “Fathers Day.” This is when we first hear Morgan actually sing; but in a similar vein as “On Tour,” he continues to tell another story. The building of the percussion along with the story pulls you along the road he is traveling. You listen intently, concerned to hear what the person on the other end of the phone will say. Whoever it is, their life is changing forever—and quite possibly the narrator’s as well. With the vocals imitating the sound of a train, you can’t help but think of the gravity of the situation he just learned of. And like a train, the situation has enough momentum to keep pushing forward until it is forced to stop. While only seemingly minimal, this song is actually complex—it is a blending of spoken word and tone. It’s an intriguing work of art worthy of more analysis than I could ever provide—within or without the context of the album.

There is a scene in the Coen Brothers’ A Serious Man when the protagonist, Larry Gopnik, stands on the roof of his house. “I Stand on a Roof” is reminiscent of that scene. Standing on top of his home, the song’s narrator is protective of his neighborhood and the land that surrounds it. The narrator remains outside in “In the Yard.” Much like “Fathers Day,” this song has literary merit as well. The most poignant line, personally, is when Morgan sings, “In the yard, on my back / I’m settled in now.” He is settled not inside the home, but outside of it. At grass level, he can look at the sky, content to feel small, and challenged to make a mark—not necessarily on the land or as a notch from the American Dream, but in the realm of art.

In “On a Cut Hill,” the narrator is once again able to see from a place where the perspective is clear. The combination of vocal instrumentation and lyrics is truly stunning—not to mention incredibly interesting. Not a single instrument is used in this particular song.

The pace of the album kicks back up with “Thinking Big.” And much like the train, the album’s momentum is kept high until its closing track, “I Dreamed.” As a drum and voice record, In the Yard serves as an experiment in the crafting of art—in crafting something beyond a traditional pop song. Although Morgan has played drums for such musicians as Joanna Newsom and Bill Callahan, he is strongest on his own. And as exemplified in In the Yard, Morgan has allowed for his voice to be heard in this thoroughly enjoyable, thought-provoking album.

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For more information visit NealMorgan.Bandcamp.com.