For the usual reasons, there are too many good songwriters out there that hardly ever make an impact outside recording studios and family gatherings. With Shiny Silvery Things, Cork songwriter Cormac O Caoimh is on his fourth album, yet you'd be hard pressed to know anyone that has ever heard of him.
This sorry state of affairs may or may not continue, but if it’s the latter then at least O Caoimh can drift away safe in the knowledge that his music never lacked smarts. There are echoes of terrific songwriters here – the likes of Lloyd Cole, Paul Simon, Eels’ Mark E Everett, and Prefab Sprout’s Paddy McAloon filter through – but O Caoimh’s personalized worldview makes the material his own.
On the basis of this album alone (never mind the other three), let’s make sure we’re not asking “whatever happened to . . . “ questions in a few years time.
