Albums of the week
Delorentos
True Surrender
Delos Records
Delorentos are reborn again, this time as that rarest of Irish things - a soul band seeking redemption
Six albums in and Dublin band Delorentos find themselves at a similar crossroads to the one Snow Patrol faced in 2003 with the last chance saloon release of Final Straw, the album that finally propelled them to major league success.
Delorentos have long crafted catchy and heart-tugging indie pop that garnered critical acclaim but gained little commercial headway. Having already split up prematurely in 2009, the band’s quick change of mind yielded several sparky and vibrant guitar albums that put Ireland’s recent crop of touchy feely boy band rockers to shame.
However, the years before True Surrender have also been ones of soul-searching, self questioning and domestic upheaval for Delorentos. It’s that sense of reflection and existential crisis that informs both the lyrics and the music on these eleven new songs.
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On opening track, the hymnal Stormy Weather, Rónan Yourell wrestles with his demons and finds final peace as the tide of his native Portrane (the same town a young U2 used to attend prayer group meetings in the early eighties) rolls over him, while on the piano-led Am I Done?, one of several songs here about the actual process of making art and music, his fellow vocalist Kieran McGuinness wonders "I am done, am I mourning something that has gone, will I ever write another song?"
Recorded in Donegal’s Attica Studios with one time Villagers member Tommy McLaughlin and with collaborations with prince of Irish pop Richie Egan, these songs are suffused with warmth and moments of transcendence. Largely jettisoning the jagged indie pop of their first few albums, Yourell and McGuinness’s songs are now bathed in gorgeous snyth figures and atmospherics. They sound reborn again, this time as that rarest of Irish things - a soul band seeking redemption.
It's a fireworks of epiphanies that finds beauty and hope in dashed dreams. Islands intros with muted hand claps and slips by buoyed aloft by gorgeous exotic-sounding synths, tricky percussion and celestial harmonies; the roomy S.O.S. (more sea-faring imagery) thrums with elasticised funk and more joyous harmonies; and blazing finale Everybody Else is a return to the fiery guitar attack of old and proves that the band can still rock out when needed.
There is the occasional descent into soppy solemnity but the expansive and sumptuous production elevates even the weaker songs to new levels of sophistication and maturity for the band.
The central question here is why is anybody in a band in the first place? Delorentos have always known the answer - to make great music. Take their advice and just surrender. ****
Anne-Marie
Speak Your Mind
Major Toms/Asylum
The whizz bang debut from Ed Sheeran's mate Anne-Marie is a canny mix of edgy r `n' b and pop
With a headline sold-out gig at Dublin’s Olympia Theatre already under her belt, 27-year-old Essex singer Anne-Marie Nicholson returns to Ireland shortly to support Ed Sheeran on his nine-date Irish tour..
She's the former musical theatre brat (she once shared a stage aged 12 with Jesse J) and three-times world karate champion who has gone through something of a pop incubation period since her first dawning in 2013.
A confederate of Rudimental, Anne-Marie released huge hits with the likes of Clean Bandit and American DJ Marshmello so everything seems primed for a debut that mixes pop immediacy with edgy electronica on brash in your face songs that tackle the pressing millennial issues of the day.
Speak Your Mind certainly starts well with Cry, a delicious kiss-off to a cheating boyfriend in which she grinds out killer lyrics like "You'll never find another, Another piece of luxury like me, You're such a mother******, You couldn't even make, make, make my tea" over spacey hi-tech and hyperventilating production.
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Humour and idiosyncratic storytelling dominate an album packed full of r `n’ b and dance and Anne-Marie’s Rihanna like patois certainly curls and darts around the haywire production values. Trigger is particular dazzling and when she slows it down on Then, it’s for an emotional electro ballad that reveals that she’s not all sass and attitude. Likewise with the funny and endearing body positive anthem Perfect, a rundown of how, sometimes at least, she’s really just a slob like everybody else.
The lyrics come in a flurry of put downs, brush offs and hilarious one-liners with an eye and ear for great pop hooks. The bold dubstep indebted Bad Girlfriend ("I’m laughing but I don’t think you’re funny, I stay because you give me all your money") approaches Lily Allen smarts and you’ll know 2002 is an Ed Sheeran co-write within the first two notes; it’s another insipid track about childhood memories with halting acoustic guitars that owes rather a lot to Castle on the Hill and sounds out of place here.
Allied with producers Steve Mac (Sheeran), Nana Rogues (Drake), TMS (Emelie Sande), Tom Meredith (One Direction) and, of course, Marshmello, it’s a debut brimming with sass and confidence that serves as a counterpoint to Dua Lipa’s more sultry pop approach.
However, Speak Your Mind is not as strikingly original as it thinks it is. It’s also overlong and lacks staying power. Still, if you’re heading to the Sheeran gigs, get there early. ***
Beneath the Sod/Crypticum
Transmorphic Eye
Cursed Monk Records
Something for the lost weekend. "Blackened doom" is the order of the night as Irish soul traders Beneath the Sod and Crypticum turn their insides out with the same conviction and catharsis as their more celebrated contemporaries. It's a reminder that so many shadow acts go under your nocturnal radar week in, week out, and that forsaking curiosity for the familiar is a mug's game - whatever the genre. This trek through the darkness invites repeat excursions when the mood is 'right', but both these one-man bands continue to wrong-foot you just when you think you're getting to know the route. Film directors with an ounce of sense should beat a path to wherever they call home. **** Harry Guerin
Gigs of the week
Friday, April 27
Gomez, Olympia Theatre, Dublin
August Wells, Roisin dubh, Galway
Josh Rouse, Whelans, Dublin
Declan O'Rourke, Kavanagh's, Portlaoise
Saturday, April 29
Yo La Tengo, Olympia Theatre, Dublin
Fangclub, Central Arts, Waterford
Thursday, May 3
The Go! Team, The Button Factory, Dublin
Albert Hill and His Electric Band, University of Ulster, Derry
Friday, May 4
Girls Rock Dublin, Whelan’s, May 4
Maria Kelly, Sub Motion, Roe and surprise guests
Otherkin, The Bowery, Dublin
Ed Sheeran, Pairc Ui Chaoimh, Cork
Music on TV
Friday, April 27
The Windmill Lane Sessions, TG4, 10.45pm
O Emperor, Four of Us, Mary Coughlan
Jeff Beck: Still on The Run, BBC Four, 9.00pm
The History of The Clash, Sky Arts, 9.55pm
Nick Cave & The bad Seeds, Austin City Limits, Sky Arts, 11.00pm
Saturday, April 28
Depeche Mode Live in Berlin, Sky Arts, 7.00pm
Super Duper Alice Cooper, Sky Arts, 9.00pm
Black Sabbath: The End of The End, Sky Arts, 11.00pm
Sunday, April 29
Coldplay: Austin City Limits, Sky Arts, 9.00pm
Johnny Cash: Behind City Walls, Sky Arts, 10.15pm
Friday, May 4
Def Leppard: Viva! Hysteria, Sky arts, 11.15pm
Dolly Parton: Song by Song, Sky Arts, 7.30pm
Ireland’s Top 10 singles
New 1 No Tears Left To Cry - Ariana Grande (Republic Records)
1 (last week) 2 (this week) One Kiss - Calvin Harris & Dua Lipa (Columbia/Warner Bros)
2 3 Nice For What - Drake (Cash Money/Republic Records (Universal Music)
3 4 Freaky Friday - Lil Dicky Ft Chris Brown (Commission/BMG)
7 5 Paradise - George Ezra (Columbia/Sony Music)
5 6 Friends - Marshmello & Anne-Marie (Asylum/Atlantic/Warner Music)
4 7 These Days - Rudimental/Glynne/Macklemore (Asylum/Warner Music)
9 8 Lullaby - Sigala & Paloma Faith (Ministry Of Sound/Sony Music)
6 9 God's Plan - Drake (Cash Money/Republic Records/Universal Music)
8 10 Love Lies - Khalid & Normani (Columbia/Sony Music)
Ireland’s Top 10 albums
New 1 Kod - J Cole (Interscope)
1 2 The Greatest Showman Motion Picture Cast Recording (Atlantic)
3 3 Divide - Ed Sheeran (Asylum)
4 4 Staying At Tamara's - George Ezra (Columbia)
2 5 Invasion of Privacy - Cardi B (Atlantic)
New 6 True - Avicii ( Positiva/Prmd)
6 7 Picture This - Picture This (Warner Music Ireland)
7 8 Dua Lipa - Dua Lipa (Warner Bros)
8 9 x - Ed Sheeran (Asylum)
New 10 Stories - Avicii (Positiva/Prmd)
Chart courtesy of IRMA
Alan Corr @corralan
