This week's RTÉ Radio 1 Album of the Week is Fionn Regan's The Meetings of the Waters.
What we say: His debut album was nominated for the Mercury prize – then a falling out with his record label scuppered the release of his second one. He's struggled to regain momentum ever since, and a decade later Fionn Regan moved to the countryside and thought about chucking it all in for life as a visual artist, before returning with what just might be the best record of his career. Regan's formidable songwriting chops - enhanced by a fresh electronic vibe - are in full effect across The Meetings Of The Waters, and he's got his fair share of champions, to boot; his track Abacus was sampled by Justin Vernon on 00000 Million from Bon Iver's album 22, and Peaky Blinder Cillian Murphy stars in the video for the title track.
What he says: "I did three records in a row and I felt like there were ideas and things that were evolving and that were going to take time so I didn’t want to rush in to making a record straight away again. I felt like if I was to make a fifth record then I had to do something that I felt was moving into a new arena. To just do another acoustic record didn’t feel like the full picture of what I’ve been moving towards. It felt like I had to go over a bridge to find what I was moving towards."
What the critics are saying:
'On his first album in five years, Bray wanderer Fionn Regan seems seized by a series of epiphanies. He is actually far from the Vale of Avoca in his native Wicklow as he ventures farther away once more from his prodigious debut, 2006's The End of History, and self-realisation makes its presence felt stronger than ever.' (RTE.ie)
'The final track could be a sign of even further change: Tsuneni Ai (the Japanese for Regan’s own record label) is 12 minutes of wordless shimmer and ripple, by turns spectral and lightheaded, and the closer of an album that is as wholly impressive as it is agreeably inscrutable.' (Irish Times)
'Euphoria and Cormorant Bird are closest in sound to his early work: gently beguiling tunes and dizzying, literary imagery: "You pulled a rainbow from my skull and you said, ‘Look at that.’" Elsewhere, things are more experimental: Cape of Diamonds and Book of the Moon bring rockier guitars and stadium-ready "oh oh ohh"s, and Babushka–Yai Ya depicts a pub brawl set to a Kate Bush soundtrack.' (The Guardian)
Listen to The Meetings of the Waters in full below, via Spotify:
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