By Brian Kelly, Fergal Murphy, Brian Rutherford
By Brian Kelly, Fergal Murphy, Brian Rutherford |
Snow Patrol Eyes Open This album, however, is a huge disappointment. It’s like one big, long, torturous song. The music is still catchy but Gary Lightbody’s vocals never seem to change throughout the album. Gone is the lovelorn angst of Run from the last album and in its place is misery for the listener. The album starts off all right with the single You’re All That I Have, being the best track on the album and that isn’t saying much. It seems that their punk rock roots have been replaced by m.o.r. tripe. By track five, It’s Beginning To Get Me, it was beginning to get to me all right! Gary Lightbody’s voice, that is. I don’t hear lyrics any more, all I hear is blah, blah, blah and it’s really got to me that I paid nearly €20 for the album. Music For Long Ears Sofa Records Almost every genre is represented here from straight-ahead rawk ‘n’ roll to low fi electronica to sweet psychedelica. Not every track is diamond quality, of course, but there is enough quality to make up for the duds. Standing tall on disc one is music from Dry County, Sunday Morning, Dae Kim and Hybrazil. Disc two opens with a wash of fuzzy guitars and a soaring vocal from The Fontanellas. Following this is a plethora of instrumentals, the highlight of which is the beautiful Fragile from God Is An Astronaut. Just as good is the elegant electronica of Dave Jacobs’s Snowflake and the 80s electro-pop of Dark Room Notion’s The Distant Lights. Full marks to Sofa Records for compiling such a diverse and dynamic collection of young Irish talent. Lend an ear to it. Republic Of Loose Aaagh! This is Irish music but not as we know it. The eclectic mix of musical influence sets Republic Of Loose apart from most other Irish bands at the moment. This album is like old Irish drinking music brought right into this century and mixed in a melting pot of blues, funk, rock and soul. There aren’t many lyrics I can quote in the paper mainly because they’re all too filthy. But this is one of the things which draws you to the album. Listening to it I find myself thinking, I can’t believe he said that. He did and there’s worse to come. But it’s humorous smut with singer Mick Pyro making fun of himself a lot of the time. Standout tracks include the soulful and funky hit single Comeback Girl, Shame and Break which sounds like it was produced by Pharrell Williams. Not one for the kids! Broken Songs Jack L. Jack’s following is mostly Irish but Broken Songs breaks new ground and is up there with the best of them. There is no reason why this CD should not sell to the rest of the world. July August September October
JOSH RITTER
A native of Idaho, Canada, 29 year old Josh Ritter has just released his 3rd album ‘The Animal Years’ (more on that later) and owes a lot to these fair isles. When Josh played recently in Vicar Street, he opened with the words “it’s good to be back home,” which goes some way to showing the affection he has for the Irish and the acknowledgement of how much we have done for him. When Josh was a struggling musician working in a temporary job and playing three or four open mike nights a week in Boston, The Frames heard him play one song and instantly recognised his talent. They invited him to come over to Ireland and open all their shows. Through this, Josh built up a large fan base in Ireland and through a lot of hard work and long hours spent touring he carried this through to the States. Plus there’s no denying his amazing talent. With each album, Josh matures immensely and with ‘The Animal Years’ Josh has found his own voice and style. On his first album ‘The Golden Age Of Radio’ one of Josh’s main influences, Bob Dylan, instantly comes to mind when trying to find comparisons right down to the gruff singing voice and the storytelling style of his lyrics as seen in ‘Harrisburg’ and ‘The Golden Age of Radio’. By his second album Josh seems to be more comfortable in his softer, natural voice as on the melodic and haunting ‘Wings’ and ‘Bright Smile’. But there are still up-tempo gems such as ‘Kathleen’ and ‘Man Burning’. The one theme that springs to mind when listening to Josh’s music is travelling, that great country, folk rock constant. ‘The Animal Years’ is his masterpiece in which his own style of song writing and singing has come to the fore. From the emotional ‘Girl in the War’ (about the Iraq War and the middle East) to the up-tempo, almost rocky ‘Wolves’, this album instantly grabs your attention and stirs everything inside you as good music should. Not overproduced, just real, simple music as if Josh and the lads are in your living room. The album contains two of the best songs I have heard in a long time (and I don’t say that lightly). ‘This Blue Flame’, which took a year and a half to write and in which John describes his vision of a world in which religious calling becomes a battle cry and everything on earth is sacrificed in the name of heaven. This song builds and builds until it explodes in an almost apocalyptic-like inferno of sound. The other gem, the haunting, dreamlike ‘Idaho’ was recorded with just a hint of acoustic guitar and relies on Josh’s voice as the main instrument which stirs the emotions as he tells a tale of regret and mournful longing for his home town. If you’ve never heard him buy this album and remember he has us to thank for his success.
The Census on April 23 last is expected to reveal a significant increase in the number of singer-songwriters in the country. Once a fledgling minority, their stock has grown significantly in recent years, so much so some people consider they have reached ‘pest levels’. Until the Census figures are revealed there is no way of knowing how many singer-songwriters there actually are. Conservative estimates put their number at 250,000. Others in the music business think the real figure is close to 2 million. A number of record company executives think the situation is getting out of hand and feel singer-songwriter numbers have to be curtailed. One of Ireland’s leading record producers who wishes to remain anonymous recently called for a cull on this particular genre of music saying “the country can’t take much more of these sensitive singer-songwriter types. They are far too many and most of them should just go far, far away.’’ Another record company exec who receives 500 CDs a day from aspiring singers with guitars feels it is time for radical action. “The government is going to have to look at banning or at least strictly controlling the amount of acoustic guitars.” He suggests a special performance license should be issued before singer-songwriters can perform in public. He adds: “there are maybe ten talented singers of this type in the country, the rest should stick to their bedrooms or concentrate on the folk mass circuit.’’ Even among fellow musicians, singer-songwriters have their critics. Musician’s Union Chairman Luke O’Clancy is forthright on the issue. “A lot of my members feel threatened by the explosion in S-S numbers. Quite a few of them, especially the banjo players feel they are taking work away from them. I’ve heard talk of running an anti singer/ songwriter candidate in the next general election. That’s how seriously they are taking the issue.’’ Until recently, the number of S-S in the country was quite small. In fact, from the period 1970-1983, there was only one recognized exponent of the art in Ireland. His name was Christy and he came from Kildare. Christy played Bob Dylan covers 7 nights a week, 363 days a year in the Lexlip Inn. Following a short tour of the Isle of Man in 1984, he bought a plot of land in county Louth, christened it Christyland and was never seen in public again. Ireland’s economic misery in the 80’s meant there were only 5 acoustic guitars in the whole country, so talent scouts of the major record labels had a thin time of it. Trad bands, jazz bands and show bands were the flavour of the month with just the occasional solo superstar bothering to show up here and strum a few numbers. By the mid 90s, change was blowing in the wind. The fabled Celtic Tiger, freed from Fossetts Circus had gone native and bitten everybody with the money bug. People now had jobs, could go on foreign holidays and smiled for the first time in 20 years. With our newfound wealth, thousands of tiger cubs invested heavily in music. Queues began forming outside Walton’s Music Stores. The owner of Walton’s, John Boy Snr. began importing guitars by the tonne and within a decade topped the Richest Men in Ireland list in the ‘Sunday Times’. Soon singer-songwriters were as ubiquitous as rain in Kerry. Record stores began filling up with CDs of baby-faced crooners with names like Andy, Paddy, Damian, Declan and Gemma. Publicans throughout the country hired twentysomething troubadours as the warm-up act for almost every Sky Sports event on TV. But what really set the number of singer slash songwriters into the stratosphere was the arrival of a television show called ‘When Will I Be Famous’ The format was simple enough: a group of callow performers, almost all armed with an acoustic guitar, tried to impress a trio of jaded judges with their musical ability. Success meant a recording session, a year’s supply of Shreddies from the sponsor and a career-launching managerial contract from pop Svengali Colonel Louis Parker. ‘When Will I Be Famous’ was as popular with the public as it was with pop wanabees. At the peak of its fame in 2001, the E.S.B had to import electricity from Russia just to power all the televisions in the country watching the show. Singer-songwriters seem to be now part of the new Ireland. They may have appeared a bit strange at first, their large numbers agitated many and others objected to the way they have integrated into our society, but for the majority of Irish people it seems to be a case of ‘ Well they are here now, we might as well try and get on with them’. |
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Snow Patrol’s new album, Eyes Open, is one I was really looking forward to as I was a big fan of its predecessor, Final Straw, which stayed in my CD player for a good few weeks after I bought it.
Taking a thermometer to the body of Irish indie rock ‘n’ roll is this double CD compilation from Sofa Records in Waterford. Glad to report that the patient is enjoying ruddy health with almost 2 hours of excellent music from 30 acts, most of which are fresh on the scene.
This is the seond album from Dublin based outfit, Republic of Loose, and it’s a cracker. Much better than their debut, The Tomb Of The Juice on which there were a few good tracks, this follow-up is laced with them.
Jack L aka Jack Lukeman has released a cracker of a CD with Broken Songs. The songs are far from broken, from Authentic Fake to Apes and Angels Jack’s baritone voice is still as powerful as ever. As the lyrics of Broken Songs goes, “If love is just for poets then forever we’ll speak in rhyme,” and Jack certainly does. It’s a CD of lost love and hope for new love, of a need to see the truth in relationships between men and women and of always trying to see a light at the end of a lonely tunnel. Highlights such as Open Your Borders, Wicked Way and Lost In Limbo make this well worth the money. I’m still humming Wicked Way long after I gave it a listen and so will you. 
You may be forgiven for asking “what’s Josh Ritter doing in this edition’s music pages?” as this is meant to be an Irish special. Bear with me I’ll explain…