Elliott Murphy followed up 1990s massive
12 with this six-song French EP, which has a running time of 22:14. The autobiographical but typically allusive lyrics reflect on
Murphy's expatriate experience, even when, on the opening track, "Rio Grande Revisited," the subject is refugees on their way to America instead of away from it. The melodic folk-rock serves to provide an agreeable yet stimulating backdrop to
Murphy's poetic flights, and the disc's concision is welcome after its predecessor's length. Four of the songs were released in the U.S. in 1993 on
Unreal City, but the title track, which is the best song, was not. On it,
Murphy confesses the powerlessness of artists -- "rhyming words won't save the Kurds" -- and concludes that things would change if poets were king, even though "nothing would get done until very late in the afternoon."