Julie Feeney - 13 Songs

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Sophisticated stuff

Self-Released - 2005 - 38 minutes

Hailing from Co Galway, 28-year-old Julie Feeney's debut album is not what you normally expect from young singer-songwriters. Her pure voice is confidently showcased on '13 Songs' with not an acoustic guitar in sight. As a result, the album has a freshness and boldness all too often lacking amongst her contemporaries' more morose efforts.

This is a one girl show and the classically trained Feeney - who has, among many other things, worked as a professional choral singer and composer - financed, recorded, produced and released the album herself. Very definitely a renaissance woman, she also plays nine different instruments on the album, including recorder, accordion, violin and harmonica. A clock ticks amidst the harmonising vocals (all by Feeney, naturally) on 'Alien' and the Galway to Dublin train even puts in an appearance on 'Autopilot'. It's a complex and eclectic mixture of sounds. These, however, are just settings for Feeney's clear, haunting voice, bringing fellow vocalist-composers like Stina Nordenstam, Kate Bush, Bjork and Elizabeth Fraser from The Cocteau Twins to mind.

Nothing if not diverse, Feeney expresses her inner Sinéad O'Connor with a few vocal gymnastics on opening track 'Aching' while 'Fictitious Richard' leans towards the sound of a medieval minstrel and wistful closer 'Luí' is a gentle lullaby. Delicate, dreamy and complex, '13 Songs' is sophisticated stuff.

Caroline Hennessy

Tracklisting: Aching - Judas - Wind Out Of My Sails - Autopilot - You Broke The Magic - You Bring Me Down - Alien - Wastin' - Fictitious Richard - Too Late - 1,000,001 - Under My Skin - Luí