Ever since Pete Murray’s massive 2004 hit “So Beautiful”—which earned five ARIA nominations and an APRA win for Most Performed Australian Work—the Queenslander has had to clarify that it’s not a love song, but a shot fired directly at pretentious types. “It’s kind of a ‘fuck you’ song,” he tells Apple Music. “But it’s done in a way that’s beautiful, and it confused a lot of people for a long time. [They] were playing that song at their wedding.” Regardless of the tune’s true message, it propelled Murray’s debut album Feeler to multiplatinum success. It was no fluke, either: he struck a similar chord with 2005’s emotionally nuanced “Better Days.” But while he made his name with acoustic-leaning ballads, Murray proved that he could rock out with 2011’s “Always a Winner,” a song with enough blues licks and horn hits to evoke classic Stones. In another zag that early fans would not have predicted, he inhabited purring soft rock in a raspier vocal register on 2017’s “Take Me Down.” And on 2025’s “Higher,” Murray invites his beachy guitar strumming into a much wider scope of production. Yet, a sincere connection always remains for the man who accidentally turned a pointed kiss-off into a wedding staple.