Nick Murphy, best known to the world as Chet Faker, has returned with a brand-new single, Inefficient Love, released today through BMG. The track follows Far Side of the Moon and sees one of Australia’s most distinctive songwriters once again baring his soul.
Inefficient Love is a vulnerable, stripped-back ballad, pairing delicately layered vocals with sparse guitar work. It plays like a confession—an intimate exploration of love, longing, and gratitude. “‘Inefficient Love’ was one of those songs that beamed in from somewhere,” Murphy says. “I was sitting on my couch at home watching a show and started playing the guitar, and just played the whole song in about five minutes. It feels old and I love it.”
Chet Faker’s story has always been one of reinvention. Born in Melbourne in 1988, Nick Murphy adopted the Chet Faker moniker as a nod to the smoky, understated style of Chet Baker. His breakthrough came in 2011 with a reimagined version of Blackstreet’s No Diggity, which quickly went viral and introduced him to a global audience.
That same year, his debut EP Thinking in Textures arrived, winning him early accolades and cementing him as one of Australia’s most exciting new artists. A collaboration with Flume on the Lockjaw EP followed in 2013, with the single Drop the Game becoming an international hit.
The following year, Chet Faker released his debut album Built on Glass. It debuted at number one on the ARIA charts, featured hits like Talk Is Cheap and Gold, and went on to collect five ARIA Awards. With its mix of downtempo soul, electronica, and heartfelt songwriting, the album became a benchmark of the era.
In 2016, Murphy announced he was retiring the Chet Faker name, choosing instead to release music under his own. He described the decision as a way to expand his creative palette without the expectations tied to the Faker persona. The years that followed saw him experimenting more freely, with the Missing Link EP in 2017 and the ambitious album Run Fast Sleep Naked in 2019, which was several years in the making.
Then, in 2020, Murphy surprised fans by reviving the Chet Faker name. The move felt less like a return and more like a reconnection with the part of his artistry that came most naturally. That revival led to the 2021 album Hotel Surrender, which featured the singles Low and Feel Good. The record brought back the warmth, groove, and emotional directness that defined his earliest releases, while reflecting the maturity of an artist who had lived through years of transformation.
With Inefficient Love, Chet Faker continues a career-long journey of rediscovery. It’s a reminder of how his greatest strengths—emotional honesty, subtlety in sound, and a gift for universal intimacy—have remained constants across name changes and stylistic shifts.
From the viral spark of No Diggity to platinum singles, ARIA Awards, international collaborations, and a decade of reinvention, Nick Murphy has never stopped evolving. Inefficient Love is both a return to the immediacy of his earliest songwriting and a testament to the restless creativity that continues to drive him forward.
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