For one, ‘Motorway’ contains direct lyrical references to ‘City Glitter’. “The city’s gone to sleep” Murray sings on both tracks, and the two both deal with themes of a failing relationship and dissociation. The two differ, however, in their overall sound and aesthetic.
While ‘City Glitter’ is a cut of sparkly, low-key dream-pop and indie folk, in line with what Murray is generally known for, ‘Motorway’ is a different, more dour beast. It opens with low, distorted, grungy guitars and a monotone vocal delivery that swallow the listener.
Some bright synths, not unlike those found on ‘City Glitter’, stab into the mix at various points throughout the track, and as Murray’s vocals become more lively and she moves into a higher register, the grimy sound this track introduces and the dreamy production of previous Fazerdaze releases begin to swirl and mesh with each other.
“I’m just stuck in my body at somebody’s party”, goes the second verse, “I know that you’re sorry / Just say that you’re sorry / Admit that it hurt me then we can go home”. Murray uses these lyrics and dejected vocal delivery to paint a picture of someone truly dissociated from their surroundings; a tragic and heartbreaking tale of a relationship breaking down, a person drifting away from someone they loved and pushing them away.
‘Motorway’ feels like a natural progression of the work that Murray has been putting into her music thus far, taking the dream-pop sensibilities that she’s spent the past decade building, and refining and experimenting with them, to push her already prominent guitar work to different spaces, adding new aesthetics and textures.
The song is a strong example of how Murray uses songwriting to portray understated and softly melancholy emotion, and how well she manages to meld that with her music.
