Latest releases reviewed
GLEN HANSARD AND MARKETA IRGLOVA
In Josef Skvorecky's book The Swell Season, a young man in 1940s Czechoslovakia seeks solace from failed love in music. Here, with Czech pianist and singer Marketa Irglova lurking in the shadows, you can't fail to see the parallels, but Glen Hansard, unflanked by the Frames, stands firmly in his own spotlight. The listless pace of Hansard's dejection stanzas never hints that the album was recorded and mixed in just six days. From In the Arms of This Low to Alone Apart, it's an honest, brooding postcard from a road trip that drifts through some bleak places. Mostly though, it's incredibly beautiful, hitching itself to the kind of sleepy chronicles Will Oldham does so well. Already revered by Frames fans, The Swell Season eclipses Hansard's collaborative work with the band and might just be the album of his career. www.theframes.ie
Sinéad Gleeson
CALEXICO Garden Ruin City Slang ****
"It's not your average Calexico album, but then it never is with this band. . . " So goes the label website of this innovative outfit from Tucson, Arizona. I know how they feel. On first hearing, this latest opus seems to signal a jolting shift from rootsy left-field to humdrum mainstream. The wonderful colours of the Mexican mariachi influence appear only fitfully. John Convertino and Joey Burns (the nucleus of the band) seem to have made a typical rock album. But give it time and the fascinating layers of Burns's songwriting become apparent, while the thoughtful instrumental settings full of tension and space begin to hit home. The record builds to a turbulent climax on the U2-ish All Systems Red, but along the way Cruel, Letter to Bowie Knife, Smash, Nom de Plume and Deep Down turn the head and stir the soul. casadecalexico.com
Joe Breen
VARIOUS Music for Long Ears 2006 Sofa ****
Most compilations of Irish rock and pop concentrate on alleged glory days when bands such as An Emotional Fish were shuffling around, but here's one providing a health-check on fresher and newer fare. Pulling in 30 acts representing every imaginable strand of current Irish rock and pop, Music for Long Ears will surprise you with the width and depth of the talent on show. While there's plenty of familiar names here (including The Frank and Walters, Giveamanakick, Ten Past Seven, God Is An Astronaut and Clive Barnes) and a couple of duds, it's the lesser lights that really shine. The soft-toned contours of Dave Jacob's Snowflake shape a beguiling take on ambient pop's stylebook, while Dae Kim's All That Glitters has drama deeply buried in its grooves. Going on what's here, future albums from Hybrasil, The Heard and Sunday Morning will also be well worth hearing. www.sofarecords.ie
Jim Carroll
THE FIERY FURNACES Bitter Tea Rough Trade ****
In his mind-scrambling career, Captain Beefheart, the crown prince of idiosyncratic rock, released almost 20 albums. Few of his fans own more than one. Here, The Fiery Furnaces - his predictably unpredictable successors - make another bid for that one indispensable album. As immediately maddening as everything the sibling surrealists Matthew and Eleanor Friedberger have concocted, this grab bag of quirky rock, random chirps and sudden electronic fanfares sounds like a Bob Dylan compilation, playing in a video arcade, underwater. An entire concept album has been squeezed, compacted and often reversed within each and every song. Ranging from the distractible but accessible Teach Me Sweetheart and Waiting to Know You, to the slow reveal of Oh Sweet Woods and The Vietnamese Telephone Ministry, it's an album that draws you in deeper with every listen. Fans will not be disappointed; but for casual listeners, this may be their Trout Mask Replica. www.thefieryfurnaces.com
Peter Crawley
THE CHARLATANS Simpatico Creole ***
It's been nearly a decade since The Charlatans made the successful transition from baggy to Britpop, and they've been carrying on doggedly ever since, but they've seemed somewhat adrift in the 21st century, as if this new world wasn't made for them. Singer Tim Burgess lives a loner's life in LA, and the City of Angels has informed the Stones-ey existentialism of the band's more recent output. Simpatico, however, sees Burgess tackling his sense of isolation head on, and giving his record collection a good shake-up, throwing up Clash-style dub (Sunset & Vine), bone-shaking dancehall reggae (City of the Dead) and even some swampy New Orleans cajun death rock (Dead Man's Eye). For Your Entertainment sees Burgess refusing to die for rock'n'roll immortality, and The Architect is an ode to a woman who's rebuilt his broken-down soul; NYC (There's no Need to Stop) and When the Light's Go Out in London are fine rock'n'roll postcards from long-lost weekends. In Burgess's long dark night of the soul, the party's still rocking steady.
Kevin Courtney
COMMUNAL Passport Communal ***
Two Paddies, a Yank and an Aussie make up the four equal parts that constitute Communal. Singer Jools King met guitarist Bill Snodgrass in New York, and the pair began writing songs that reflect their transatlantic tastes, anything from Foo Fighters and Red Hot Chili Peppers to Radiohead and, yes, even U2. They recruited bassist Steve Mogerley and drummer Chris Teusner, and recorded the album with help from Kieran Lynch, who has previously worked with Elvis Costello. From the first skittering, Flea-like bassline of the track Communal to the final cascading guitar lick of Instrumental, it's clear that Communal are trying to stand out from the slew of new bands on the block by showcasing their musical dexterity, kinetic energy and ability to switch moods with the flick of a toggle. It almost works - Be One, Fallow, Relent, Libertine, Take Me and Crazy pack enough metallic punch to keep the head bobbing, and enough melody to stop it coming up against a brick wall. But it's held back by a resolutely old-school rock approach, which stops many of the songs from really taking interesting shapes. They've got the dynamics down; now they need to find their own definitive style. www.communalband.com
Kevin Courtney
BLACK 47 Bittersweet Sixteen Gadlfy Records **
New York-based Black 47 have been together as a fightin' Irish unit for 16 years - hence the compilation's title, which gives some indication of the frustrations and celebrations experienced by the band in the time they've been around. Compilations and best-ofs give an overview of a life less ordinary, and Bittersweet Sixteen highlights an outfit - led with ferocious commitment by Wexford musician Larry Kirwan - that isn't prepared to allow any injustice to pass by unnoticed. Inevitably, there's a strong political and social bias to their music - tracks such as Big Fellah, Voodoo City, Bobby Sands MP, Downtown Baghdad Blues and Patriot Game fuse passion with propaganda. Unfortunately, the music isn't always a tight fit; featuring tropes from Bruce Springsteen, The Pogues, Dexy's Midnight Runners, traditional ballad forms and music, there's a here-there-everywhere approach that undermines the band's overall themes. That said, in a bar with a beer you could imagine having a riot of a time. www.black47.com
Tony Clayton-Lea
