Made up of former members of Dublin mainstays The Stars of Heaven, Pet Lamb, Jackbeast and Legion of Two, the pedigree on display here is almost too good to be true.
Throw in guest spots from guitar ace Cian Nugent and John Hegarty on keyboards and Dinah Brand’s third album chimes with guitar beauty and weeps with wry lyrical sophistication in equal measure.
With Stephen Ryan’s tangle of countrified guitars meeting Pet Lamb’s brute vigour head-on, it’s certainly an intriguing proposal but Thank You Driver is actually a halting, intimate affair that sparks with erratic and gorgeous riffs and sleepy vocals. They sound like a garage band in slow motion and, occasionally, a bunch of mid-nineties slacker rockers.
Gavin Ward of Jackbeast and Dylan Phillips of Pet Lamb share laconic vocal duties on the Byrdsian harmonic rush of Rotunda Boy, while laid back opening track Protagonist is a gorgeous build of ringing guitars and lyrics that celebrate the blind romance of being in a band.
Seeped in sweetness and a sepia-toned melancholia that seems to capture damp Dublin nights and worn-out promises, Dinah Brand sound like the rueful morning after a night out with The Replacements, The Go-Betweens and Big Star.
Alan Corr @CorrAlan2
Thank You Driver is available to purchase here
