Read reviews from Dirty Linen Review, GAJOOB Magazine, and Tom’s Catalog

From Dirty Linen Review
With his soft warm tenor, Murante delivers some insightful, socially-conscious songs that tackle a wide range of topics like eco-warriors, the end of the world, techno-fear and the universal theme of love. Despite themes we’ve heard before, Murante’s lyrics and catchy folk/rock approach set him a few notches above most performers.

The love song “Taste Of Your Laughter” has some intriguing lyrics (“Last night I dreamed that 13 iridescent dragonflies, in silver slippers flew counter clockwise loops around your head. They sang your name in seven languages and in pentatonic scales”) that immediately capture your attention.

His acoustic guitar work is gentle and flowing, never distracting you from his voice, and his accompaniment is minimal on most songs. Of special note are “Weeping Wood,” a homage to the late environmentalist Chico Mendes, and the rollicking “Couch Potato,” which describes the feeling of sinking lower into the sludge of bad television (the humor resembles Christine Laven’s).

Like the description of his father in “Quiet Strength,” Kiss Me One More TIme has a quiet strength that makes each and every track a special event. Highly recommended. (JM)

From GAJOOB Magazine
First thing about this CD I like (among a lot of things, incidentally) is Murante’s strong vocals and his strong sense of melody. His vocals remind me of Paul Young, but musically, Murante takes more influences from folk rock, although there is a healthy bit of smooth jazz inflections throughout as well. And the songs… the songs keep coming; all of ’em keepers with poetic lyrics and new ways of saying I love only you, with stories and images abounding and hitting subtleties like very few songwriters manage in even their most gifted moments.Seek this one out.

From Dr. Davis, Tom’s Catalog
Larry Murante’s 1994 album Kiss Me One More Time starts off deceptively with the tune “KO”. It begins with a simple finger-picking intro that is soon augmented by a powerful distorted guitar, sweeping into the chorus with strong drums. The song continues to add layers; vocal harmonies, a slide guitar weaving in and out. Murante’s voice, at first simple and unaffected, soon gets grittier, straining for the higher notes like an athlete straining for the high jump bar. Murante’s vocal style reminds me a lot of Michael McDonald before he got deified in the 80’s; some of the music on this album sounds like it was recorded by a kinder, gentler Doobie Bros. It’s a nice opener, pulling the listener into a very personal lyric with a nice, sweeping arrangement and a kicker chorus.

The next song, the title track “Kiss Me One More Time,” is an engaging blend of jazz and rock, again featuring Murante’s athletic tenor. “Autumn Day in June” returns us to an effective mix of anthemic pop/rock tempered by jazz sensibilities; killer chorus, nicely sliding fretless bass line, subtle vocal doubling for harmonies…really a lovely song. So too is “No Better Comfort”, which features some nice violin from Paul Elliot.

“Love That Woman” presents a nice change of pace, and some tasty slide work from Rod Cook. This song might as well be on a Lyle Lovett record; not to say it’s derivative, it’s just such a perfect example of the slightly twisted, rousing western swing that Lovett presents on albums like “The Road to Ensenada,” (“That’s Right, You’re Not From Texas”) comes to mind.

After a quick breath, Murante goes back to ballads for the remainder of the record, except for the novelty song “Couch Potato,” yet another attempt to wake us all up to the dangers of television. TV is a popular target, and songs attacking its mind-eating properties abound.

Murante closes with a beautifully executed “Quiet Strength”, that seems to sum up a lot of the musical elements used earlier in the album. The song is a Father’s Day card of a tribute tune to a musical Dad. The harmonies are characteristically gorgeous, and Paul Elliot’s violin adds a nice sentiment without getting maudlin.

This is a well presented, well played, mostly well written project. The writing seems more specifically personal to the composer than I’ve heard in a while, which is both good and bad; good that common emotions are illustrated in a unique and unusual way, bad that sometimes the references are so outside the listener’s experience that we feel excluded or just plain lost. That rarely occurs, however; the album includes some fine songs well played, (I particularly like “Love That Woman,” but I’m a sucker for Western Bop). Overall, a very good effort, well worth the listen.