Brendan Tiernan: Concrete Heart

Some songwriters are content to reside not just by the side of the road but over the hedge and halfway down the field. Irish songwriter Brendan Tiernan has done his share of hiding away, but with a lo-fi self-release as good as this, surely he could pop his head over the parapet and have his photo taken? Tiernan’s previous outing was with an electronica duo called Emily’s Eldest.

Here, as stark as a plucked chicken, he's on his own, channelling the wavering spirits of Nick Drake and John Lennon through a series of semi-themed songs (The Nightingale, Golden Girl, Liffey Blood, the title track, The Liffey Sound) that reference something irretrievably lost and utterly lonely. Aside from an instrumental (The Pecker Dunne), this is as cohesive a singer-songwriter record as you'll hear for quite some time.

[ reverbnation.com/bennytiernan ]