This week's RTÉ Radio 1 Album of the Week is James Vincent McMorrow's True Care.
What we say: Coming less than a year after his Choice Prize nominated We Move, this surprise release from JVMcM is the sound of a restless musical soul ripping up the map and going for it - a bold and experimental work that isn't afraid to challenge perceptions of what his faithful-devoted fanbase might anticipate. By turns out-there and audacious (and pretty damn funky, to boot), McMorrow calls True Care an attempt to 're-wire' himself: 'I fixed a point in the future, December 2914, a time none of us will ever see. I used it as an anchor point, to help me start writing about my life now, my life before, and the complete abstraction that is my life in the future... Finding a point 900 years in the future felt like the minimum distance someone like me would need to gain a perspective...' From our perspective, we're calling a winner.
What he says: 'It felt so vital that I leave any flaws on display, not go back and sand off their edges. Music is so often elevated to a platform before the world has even had a chance to hear it properly. You know what i mean? It becomes this untouchable and intangible thing..... Iʼve done this with my own work before…This album is life, itʼs the life iʼve lived up to this point, itʼs the one that might be ahead of me.'
What the critics are saying:
'True Care is dreamlike. Beautifully textured and bathed in a glistening haze, James Vincent McMorrow’s fourth outing is the culmination of what has come before it and what is happening now. On this record, everything has come together.' (The Last Mixed Tape)
'McMorrow presents 15 new tunes that further consolidate his position as a songwriter of meaningful, depth-charged soul music. If the opening track, December 2914, playfully meanders from Prince funk to Weather Report fusion, then so much of the remainder pivots around a redemptive form of experimentation...' (Irish Times)
'As unexpected treats go, True Care is a sublime, abstracted gift that keeps on giving.' (Irish Examiner)
Listen to True Care in full below, via Spotify:
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Find out more about RTÉ Radio 1's weekly playlist here.
